The self-employed are a sector of society with special conditions at the work level. They are their own bosses and the ones who decide their working hours. They also have a special tax system, being obliged to pay a self-employed fee in addition to their personal income tax or corresponding corporation tax. For five years, unemployment of the self-employed has been available after the entry into force of Law 32/2010, on November 6, 2010.

Requirements to Request the Benefit for Cessation of Activity of a Self-Employed

As with any unemployed person, to apply for
unemployment for the self-employed
 it is necessary to meet a series of requirements. To begin with, you must be affiliated and have the registration in the RETA and have at least 48 months quoted (the minimum to request the aid for the self-employed), and have contributed consecutively the 12 months prior to the cessation of the activity.

As in any work activity, it is illegal to collect unemployment and continue working at the same time. Therefore, it is mandatory to legalize the employment situation by ceasing the activity and subscribing that you are actively looking for a new job or starting a new autonomous business soon.

Obviously, if you are of retirement age, but you have decided to continue working, it is not allowed to collect the unemployment contribution, with the exception of not having completed the 48 months of work stipulated above. Otherwise, you will only be entitled to receive the corresponding pension.

Payments to Social Security must be fully up to date. In case it is not so, but you have the minimum quoted, a period of 30 calendar days will be opened to catch up. This is what is known as an “invitation to payment”.

Another requirement for the unemployment of the self-employed is to be completely clean with the law. The self-employed who have a criminal offense that prevents them from exercising the activity and have contributed the minimum of 48 months will not be entitled to receive any type of unemployment. Fulfilling all these obligations is necessary to be able to benefit from the unemployment contribution.

How Long Are These Self-Employed Grants?

48 months is the minimum to request the withdrawal of self-employed for cessation of activity (in addition to having the previous year quoted consecutively). However, the number of months contributed will determine the duration of the unemployment benefit of the self-employed person himself.

From twelve to seventeen months will involve two months of benefit, from 18 to 23, three months of benefit, increasing one month of benefit for every five months contributed until reaching 48 months or more that will allow receiving the corresponding benefit for one year.

However, in the self-employed regime, differences are established for workers from 60 to 64 years old. From 12 to 17 months is still two months of benefit.

On the other hand, while those under 60 years of ageare given one more month of benefit for every five months contributed,this group is increased by two months for every five months quoted until reaching 48 months where they would also receive a year of benefit.

Another of the great concerns of the self-employed is the amount to which this benefit will arrive.

The law states that they will charge 70% of their regulatory base.

This regulatory base is defined as the average of the bases of the activities of the self-employed during the last 12 consecutive months that must be accredited to apply for unemployment. For example, if the average of a self-employed person amounts to a regulatory base of 893.16 euros in 2016, this self-employed person, in case of cessation of activity, will be entitled to request a benefit of 625 euros per month during the months that the benefit lasts.

Another of the variables involved in the calculation of the unemployment benefit of the self-employed is the contribution base. The rate applied to try to protect cessation of activity is 2.2%. In 2015, this quota was made more flexible by eliminating the quota for occupational risks and allowing to increase the benefits for cessation of activity.

However, the law indicates that self-employed workers who aelionate this protection will receive a reduction of half a point in their quota.

The Difficulties of the Self-Employed

Five years after giving the possibility to the
Spanish self-employed
 to receive an unemployment benefit, like the rest of the groups, the assessment is not positive.

One of the great difficulties to be able to start collecting unemployment was in the obstacles of the mutual societies to be able to approve this benefit. In 2015, the new Mutual Societies Law was approved, which increased the number of self-employed workers with the capacity to receive this benefit.

The latest studies show that the number of self-employed who benefit from this possibility has increased, but the amount to be received by this group is still low.