Law change to relieve social insurance debtors

By George Psyllides

INSTRUCTIONS have been given to amend the law on social insurance so that people owing money do not end up in prison, MPs heard on Wednesday, as discussion over imprisonment for relatively small amounts of money continued.

Justice minister Ionas Nicolaou said changes would be introduced to allow the collection of social insurance dues through instalments or freezing immovable property.

The current system turns the amount due into a monetary sentence and a jail order is issued, the minister said.

Instructions have also been given to police officers to check the debtors’ ability to pay in instalments. If not, they should be advised to request suspension of prosecution.

The amendments would also compel the court to examine a defendant’s ability to pay and other ways of repaying their dues. Community work will also be an alternative to prison, he said.

Nicolaou said the correlation between amount and jail time must also be reviewed.

Under the current system, for around every €3,400 in fines an individual gets five days in jail.

The minister said that the government favoured community work for fines up to €3,000.

The Legal Service said that since January 2014 it has received 1,145 applications to suspend prosecution and 500 have been rejected.

Last week, deputy prison governor Anna Aristotelous told MPs that 289 people were jailed in the first ten months of the year for debts ranging between €300 and €30,000.

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