Escrivá defends that the new self-employed contribution system provides "security and certainty"

MADRID, 21 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, presented this Thursday, before the Commission for the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Agreements of the Toledo Pact, the future reform of the self-employed contribution system for real income, agreed this week with the main associations, and has defended that it will give "security and certainty" to this group.

Escrivá has pointed out that, with the current system, Spain represented "a great anomaly", since the self-employed "did not contribute according to their net income" and generated "a lot of inequity and weakness of the protective action".

84% of the self-employed contribute for a minimum base, below 300 euros per month, which, combined with the periods without contributions, which are usually "quite long" among self-employed workers, "has generated that their pensions are relatively low", specifically, 43% below that of wage earners.

For this reason, Escrivá has stressed that the new system introduces changes in quotas, but also modifies the social protection system, with an extension of benefits for cessation of activity, with recognition of partial interruptions. It also includes a RED mechanism, both cyclical and sectoral.

The future reform of the contribution system also contemplates a "reduced fee for self-employed workers who start their activity", which will replace the previous flat rate. This measure, with a fee of 80 euros, will have a "general nature" during the first year, as the minister pointed out, with the possibility of extending it for another 12 months if the evolution of income has not been able to take off in the first year and continues below the Minimum Interprofessional Salary.

Escrivá has highlighted the "flexibility" that this reform will give the self-employed, since it will allow them to change their contribution brackets every two months and, in addition, it will give them the possibility of having a generic deduction of 7% of net income, which will be 3% for self-employed companies.

The self-employed must be contributing for their net income in 2032, for which the Government and the social agents have agreed during those years "a transitory period" in the contribution brackets for the "general introduction" of the new regime and for the adaptation both of the self-employed as of the Administration.