THE EAGLE. There are another 640 residents (in addition to the 6 thousand already identified last year) who should return the autonomous accommodation contribution (Cas) received illegally. These are 640 citizens who had been sent an “injunction” to return the money not owed since 2014 (before the definitive stop to the CAS in March 2015) but no one, at the time, had done so. The Municipality discovered the “forgetfulness” only today (almost 10 years later and, therefore, with the risk of statute of limitations) and has put it in black and white in a resolution with which it gives an additional assignment (for 50 thousand euro) to Assoservizi, committed for 12 months to hunting down the 6,000 people discovered in May 2023 as recipients of CAS without however being entitled to it. Now 640 are added and therefore we are at 6,640. “In May 2023”, we read in the resolution, “Assoservizi was entrusted with the support service to the offices for the recovery of the independent accommodation contribution paid to individuals without the requirements for use, as well as the collection service. The assignment had become necessary in light of the previous failure to comply with administrative requirements regarding the recovery of sums unduly received for this purpose, for a number of positions equal to approximately 6,000.
Following the assignment of the service, it emerged that the offices of the former population assistance service had sent hundreds of assessment notices for unduly received CAS in 2014, but the related sums were never collected. The manager of the social policy service recently announced that the number of additional practices is 640 and that however, having been identified after the assignment to Assoservizi in May 2023, they are not included in the existing contract with the ‘Assoservizi itself”.
The situation of the 640 “new” debt positions “especially with reference to the natural expiry of the limitation periods, requires proceeding urgently and in any case within the current year, in order not to jeopardize the recovery within the legal timeframes. The number of citizens involved, as well as the widespread nature of the checks to be carried out, the complexity and quantity of the procedures to be managed, with the related investigative activities, require an exceptional commitment of the staff compared to the ordinary activity also in consideration of the urgent need to recover these sums over a defined period of time. The Municipality, therefore, does not have the internal human resources to carry out these operations independently and quickly and it is therefore necessary to use a specialized company. It is therefore considered appropriate to achieve a uniform, coherent and structured management of the entire procedure through the use of the same person already identified with the determination in May 2023” and therefore Assoservizi which “so far has carried out the service entrusted to it in a timely and accurate manner and with notable professionalism, as demonstrated by the report sent on 31 March 2024, which shows the actual sending of more than 2,000 assessment notices with the collection of more than 500,000 euros already paid by the debtors”.
