Self-employed workers affected by the floods will be able to defer their contributions for six months

They will have until October 30 to request it.

In the coming days, the Resolution of the General Treasury of Social Security will be published in the BOE, which doubles to six the number of contributions that self-employed workers and businesses affected by the floods will be able to defer. The monthly payments will have to be made from October 2020 and no surcharge will be applied.

The Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security has increased to six the number of contributions that self-employed workers and businesses with registered employees affected by the natural disasters that have occurred in Spain since April can defer. This is stated in the Resolution of the General Treasury of Social Security to which Autónomos y Emprendedor has had access and which will be published in the BOE (Official State Gazette) “in the next few days”, according to sources from the ministry.

With this, the Department of Labour, headed by Magdalena Valerio, doubles the limit initially set in the Royal Decree Law published at the beginning of the week. That is, it changes from three to six the number of “consecutive instalments” whose payment can be deferred until next year.

The resolution also states that “no surcharge or interest” will be applied to deferred payments, which must begin to be paid from October 2020 to March 2021.

Self-employed workers and businesses wishing to benefit from this measure will have until 30 October to submit an application, which must be accompanied by documentation proving the damage or loss of activity resulting from it, as well as the location of the affected companies or businesses, or the place where the activity is carried out. This must be issued by “a resolution of the labour authority; by the respective town council; by the competent autonomous island body; or by the Government Delegation in the Autonomous Community in which the damage or loss of activity is accredited”, according to the text of the Resolution.

42% of the compensation requests received come from the Region of Murcia.

In the case of farmers, the resolution or communication from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food or from Enesa (State Entity for Agricultural Insurance) must be submitted, stating that the applicant is a beneficiary of the aid granted due to these catastrophes. The heads of the provincial Directorates of the General Treasury of Social Security will be those who will have the authority to resolve the files.

Although the Social Security does not have estimates for the moment regarding the number of self-employed workers and businesses that will benefit from the deferral of contributions, a first reference to take into account is the latest data made public by the Insurance Compensation Consortium, which has so far received more than 2,500 requests for compensation from businesses and industries. 42% of these come from the Region of Murcia.

Get back to normal as soon as possible

As stated in the resolution itself, the aim of extending the number of deferred contributions is to “alleviate the difficulties that companies and self-employed workers in affected areas may have in fulfilling their obligations regarding Social Security contributions and joint collection concepts”. And, with this, to return to normality as soon as possible.

The Royal Decree Law also includes another key measure for affected self-employed workers. They will be able to apply for the benefit for cessation of activity without having to have been paying contributions continuously for the 12 months prior to the application. In addition, the time during which they receive the well-known “unemployment benefit for self-employed workers” will not be counted.

Furthermore, those who are forced to deregister from the RETA (Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers) and were receiving a reduction or bonus in their fee (for example, the Flat Rate) may reapply for it for the time “pending enjoyment” if they decide to re-register as self-employed.

The Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security will allocate 58.43 million euros to finance aid for those affected by natural disasters (101 million euros of the 557.7 million euros approved by the Government as a whole). Of this amount, 26.03 million euros will be allocated to Social Security actions and the remaining 32.4 million euros to unemployment.

If you want more information and to process the aid, our experts in labor matters can help you. contact.