With a bit of luck, nearly 800,000 autónomos will receive a sum of money in their bank account on Friday paid out by their mutua.
The minimum amount will be 661 euros, if like most autónomos you have been paying the minimum, monthly Seguridad Social payments.
But before you start working out what you are going to spend it on, remember that 941,000 autónomos put in for this payment almost a month ago, which means that about 150,000 autónomos have had their claims rejected.
One of the requisites was that you had to show you had lost 75% of your earning compared with the same period last year. The association that represents self-employed workers (autónomos) want the figure reduced to 40%.
The fact is around 1.4m autónomos are still having to pay their monthly S.S. payments even though they are not earning anything and calls for the payments to be suspended have fallen on deaf, governmental ears. Ears, we should point out, that still receive 100% of their salaries.
Things are further complicated by the fact that the National Employment Agencies (SEPE) has only 6,000 staff to sort through 450,000 ERTE applications, which is producing a log jam and long delays for those awaiting payment. Consequently, it won’t be until the beginning of May that these workers will see any gelt.
An ERTE (Expediente de Regulación Temporal de Empleo) is when companies apply for a temporary cessation of activity, meaning that their workers will receive between 501 and 1,411 euros from the government every month whilst the ERTE is active.
So, with 450,000 ERTE applications, each one involving all the workers in that company, the number of laid-off workers waiting for their money runs into millions.
Confused? Who isn’t! If you’re employed by somebody else, your boss has probably applied for an ERTE. If you’re a self-employed worker, then you’re the one that will get a one-off payment of 661 euros on Friday, if you’re lucky. Of course, if you didn’t apply for it, then you’re not going to get anything, obviously.
One last thing: Friday is the day that people start to receive this payment; it doesn’t mean that everybody is going to get it on that day.
(News: Spain)