Another year of aid to expand the flat rate for self-employed

It has been announced this week that a new call for aid will be approved to expand the flat rate for self-employed workers in Andalucia.

The Minister of Employment, Training and Self-Employed Work, Rocio Blanco, has reported in the Andalucian Parliament that in the coming weeks a new call for aid will be approved to expand the flat rate for self-employed with a budget of 13.5 million euros.

During a parliamentary response on new employability measures, the councillor pointed out that employment support policies “must take into account both self-employed workers and employed workers.”

She recalled that the flat rate bonus for the self-employed was the first “draft” measure that the Andalucian Government approved for the group with a positive impact. Since its approval in February 2019, it has been requested by 38,794 people, far exceeding the initial forecast of 24,000 requests.

Blanco has detailed that vulnerable groups in the labour market have benefited from the expansion of the flat rate, such as the group of self-employed young people under 30 years of age, which makes up  38.7 per cent of the total, and an expense of 9.9 million.

The councillor has added that of the 28.6 million euros budgeted, the payment of 20.66 million euros has already materialised and another 13.5 million euros will now be added with the new request.

Blanco has cited the aid to maintain employment in the companies included in ERTE, which in its first request, concluded in May, resulted in 26,217 favourable applications.

Along the same lines, the councillor has indicated that a new call for these incentives will be launched which will be endowed with 160 million euros and will be open to all companies, regardless of the sector, where they develop their economic activity to enable the participation of a greater number of self-employed persons and companies.

The programme to stimulate the creation and consolidation of self-employment in Andalucia was approved in July 2019 and included a package of aid to extend the flat rate of 60 euros to a second year, as well as super-reduced rates of 30 euros for specific groups.

The aid is intended to cover the costs of the contributions to Social Security for self-employed, extending the state flat rate to two years so that the burden of expenses in the initial stages of the activity of these workers is reduced.

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