requires not touching the latest proposal and improving benefits

The ATA employers’ association, an organization that represents the self-employed within CEOE, is open to accepting the latest quota proposal that Social Security put on the table if a series of conditions are met. The president of the organization, Lorenzo Amor, has changed the volume in his speech and has shown himself willing to work “with loyalty” and “responsibility” to reach an agreement with the ministry, with whom he will meet again this week. This was stated by the leader of ATA, who spoke this Monday at the Self-Employed Person of the Year Awards gala, awarded by his organization.

The pact would be subject to a series of conditions. The first, that Social Security “do not touch the table of contributions that has been placed on the table”that the association fits with ATA’s objective of not raising fees above inflation.

The document that Social Security extended the ministry to unions and self-employed organizations raised freeze fees for self-employed workers with lower incomes and an increase of between 1 and 2.5% in 2026 for the rest. A full-fledged rectification compared to the first proposal, which contemplated increases of between 3.8% and 35%.

To this condition, two others are added: equate the social protection of self-employed workers with that of employees and that some of the problems that arose with the 2023 regularization be resolved. More specifically, the reduction in the contribution bases of the self-employed collaborators (family members of self-employed people) and the situation of those who are multi-activity.

In the section on social protection, ATA demands, among other issues, improve access to benefit for cessation of activity (the equivalent of unemployment, but for the self-employed), which Amor has described as a “fraud” because 60% of applications are rejected. Likewise, ATA demands that the possibility of collecting unemployment benefits for those over 52 years of age be extended to the self-employed or that they be granted breastfeeding permits.

The increases in the quota that are being proposed are part of the new contribution system for the self-employed that was introduced in 2022 to progressively bring the group’s Social Security contribution closer to their real income. Currently, the contribution bases of the self-employed are still far from that reference, especially that of the self-employed who generate the most income.

ANDThe objective is that in 2032 the milestone of contributing for real income will be reachedin a similar way to what happens with employees. A goal that ATA disagrees with, which has defended on several occasions that this is already achieved. “We defend a contribution income for tax revenue, but that does not aim to collect more, but rather is a fair system, so that those who earn the least, contribute and pay less,” said Amor.

“Crushed” based on “taxes, contributions and obstacles”

Despite the rectification of Social Security on the issue of quotas, Amor has been very harsh with the Executive, whom he has accused of “crushing” the self-employed based on “taxes, contributions and obstacles.”

Amor has called on the Government to “stop thinking so much” about the pensions of the self-employed, because “most of us self-employed people do not do it.” “For us, what worries us is how we are going to pay the contributions when Friday arrives”he has expressed.

This point is key because the new contribution system for the self-employed is part of the pension reform approved by former minister José Luis Escrivá. The increase in contributions seeks, in addition to providing the self-employed with a higher pension in the future, fill the coffers to sustain the system in the coming years of demographic tension.

“Those who think that the Social Security deficit can be solved by having the self-employed contribute more are wrong,” Amor has pointed out, who has called for “reviewing spending” on pensions. “They should be more concerned about those 33,000 million that absenteeism costs Social Security and companies,” he concluded.