The Regional Ministry of Employment, Enterprise and Self-Employment has approved another increase in the annual budget to support new self-employed workers, which will mean that Almeria will have 6,858,066.49 euros to boost self-employment, according to the regional delegate for Employment, Amós García Hueso. «This second extension of the credit by 14% -he added- will allow us to respond to the high number of applications received, which already exceed 1,800 since the deadline opened last August to apply for these incentives that can reach 5,500 euros for new self-employed workers who are beneficiaries of the reduced quota retroactively from 1 January 2023».
«The best measure to stimulate employment is to facilitate economic activity, and that is why the Andalusian Government is clear that it is necessary to support the self-employed, the men and women who contribute every day with their effort and work to generate economic growth, employment and social development», said Amós García, who also indicated that the group of self-employed «has continued to grow in the province in recent years, a sign of the entrepreneurial spirit of Almeria and the effectiveness of the measures to support the self-employed that the Junta has deployed».
In this regard, he reported that November 2023 ended with 62,283 self-employed workers in the province, which represents an increase of 4.7% in the last five years and 809 more than in January this year (1.3% more). He also indicated that this group accounts for almost 20% of the total number of members in the province.
García Hueso also recalled that in the previous call of this incentive programme, the Junta supported 606 new self-employed Almeria with 2,745,800 euros, «which served as a boost to start their businesses and generate employment and wealth. He also mentioned other support measures such as the ‘zero quota’, which covers 100% of the Social Security contribution of the new Andalusian self-employed during their first year of activity and during the second year if they earn less than the minimum wage, incentives to compensate for the extra energy costs, aid for the reconciliation of family and professional life for the self-employed, incentives for modernisation and digital and sustainable transformation, aid for the purchase of safer work equipment and subsidies to organisations of the group both to promote self-employment and to provide training, advice and information on the prevention of occupational hazards.
Beneficiaries of aid for new self-employed workers
The subsidies for the start-up of new self-employed activities are announced on a non-competitive basis and are financed with funds from the European Social Fund PLUS programme and with the Regional Government of Andalusia’s own funds. The incentives are aimed at those who have started an activity and maintain their self-employed status uninterruptedly for twelve months from the day after the application is submitted.
With the aim of prioritising women, young people and entrepreneurs who start their activity in small municipalities, the amounts vary depending on the group. Thus, for self-employed women under 35 years of age, the subsidy is 5,000 euros, and for those aged 35 or over, 3,800 euros. In the case of men, the self-employed under the age of 30 receive 5,000 euros, and those aged 30 and over receive 3,800 euros. In addition, if these beneficiaries carry out their activity in a municipality of less than 10,000 inhabitants, the amount of the subsidy is increased to 5,500 euros for women under 35 and men under 30, and to 5,000 euros in the other two cases.
Self-employed workers who wish to apply, in addition to being registered in the RETA on the date of submission of the application and carrying out their activity in Andalusia, must be beneficiaries of the reduced quota regulated in Law 20/2007, of 11 July, and must have a viability plan for the projected activity on the date of submission of the application.