This Monday, February 14, was the last day of the term for the payment of severance pay corresponding to 2021 and doubts arise about the use that can be given to this money that has been consigned to the severance fund to which the worker is affiliate.
At we consulted Leonardo Mejía, lawyer and director of the Mejía López Office, and Javier Del Real, the firm’s lawyer and Specialist in Labor Law, who explained that there are three severance payment systems, which are:
Traditional system, which is characterized, because only until the end of the employment contract is it liquidated and the value of the benefit is paid directly to the worker based on the last salary earned.
The definitive and annual liquidation system, created with Law 50 of 1990, where the so-called severance funds were instituted. In this system, they are settled year after year with the value of the salary and it is consigned to the respective fund, unless the contract ends before the maximum date for its consignment.
And the Comprehensive Salary System, which recognizes and pays the value of severance pay within 30% of the benefit factor and which makes up the total value of the comprehensive salary; It is considered as an advance payment of the benefit.
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With regard to the above, and after having proof of receipt of the amount of the severance pay, in case you want to withdraw it, the most advisable thing is to make a list of priorities, based on the fact that the severance pay can only be spent in the following cases:
– Support in case of unemployment
– Acquisition of housing.
– Housing construction.
– Home improvement.
– Payment of mortgage loans.
– Higher, technical or technological education of the worker, their children, their spouse and/or permanent partner.
– I pay credits with ICETEX.
– Payment and purchase of education insurance.
– Acquisition of state bonds and shares.
Workers have no control over the free use of their severance pay. That is, they can only be used in the aforementioned cases.
It should be noted that,
“Whatever the reason for the partial withdrawal according to the indicated possibilities, this is done directly before the severance fund and on the value that is already caused and deposited from previous years, in such a way that the employer only corresponds issue the corresponding withdrawal authorization”.
Likewise, the calculation of layoffs is made by taking the value of the last salary earned by the collaborator, as long as there has been no variation in the last three (03) months, multiplying it by the number of days worked and dividing the result into 360.