One in four self-employed will lose more than 30,000 euros per year in income, according to their employer

A waitress attends two clients in Logroño last Sunday Alberto Ruiz / Europa Press

The group of self-employed workers is experiencing the health and economic evolution derived from the pandemic with particular uncertainty, and the prospects regarding their survival in the short and medium term are dramatic.

This is clear from the conclusions of the

prepared by the National Federation of Associations of Self-Employed Workers (ATA), which the body chaired by Lorenzo Amor has announced this Monday.

As detailed in the document, three out of four self-employed currently have some restriction in the performance of their activity, and 19.3% ―620,000 of a total of 3,266,427 according to the number of RETA affiliates in October 2020― , have their businesses and / or activities currently closed.

As a consequence of this situation, among those who cannot work, and those who do so with limitations, ATA estimates that the losses of this group this year will be more than 60,000 million euros.

"A disaster is coming for the self-employed, companies and workers if it is not accompanied by an urgent plan of economic measures," says Amor. The leader points out to the Government for its lack of "sensitivity", in reference to the rise in quotas that are It has occurred recently as a result of the rise in rates for termination of activity and professional contingencies established for the 2019-2021 period.

"We can not talk about the future without fixing the present," he added when addressing the delicate situation in which millions of families are affected by the increase in outbreaks and the tightening of restrictions.

And it is that, according to the ATA barometer ―composed from the responses obtained through 2,040 questionnaires made to workers from different representative extracts of autonomous communities and sectors―, 84.9% of the self-employed ensure that the turnover of their business has been reduced compared to 2019, being 60% for half of them.

Only 9.7% declare they have remained and a fortunate 3.2% have managed to increase their collection.

Regarding the amount of these losses, almost a third (28.8%) have quantified them at more than 30,000 euros, concentrating this tear in the sectors most affected by the pandemic: the events sector, leisure (children, nightlife, culture and entertainment) and commerce.

“It is urgent to establish an emergency plan now, and with a view to some very complicated months, that extends the aid until May 31, 2021, facilitates liquidity and boosts consumption and demand in order to cushion the fall of the activity and avoid the closure of companies and the self-employed and therefore the destruction of employment, ”says Amor.

The ERTE lifeguard

The dependence on public aid of a group that is singularly vulnerable to such a brutal imbalance as the one caused by the coronavirus is reflected in the number of freelancers who have accessed the different tools proposed by the Government to contain the coup, especially the ERTE and ICO credits.

As the ATA study indicates, 44.8% of the self-employed who have workers have applied an ERTE or plan to do so to continue their activity, while 23.4% ―almost a quarter of the total―, acknowledges having taken advantage of a temporary employment regulation file for all its staff.

Among those with workers under their care and who have not opted to do so to avoid layoffs are 14.4%, which in absolute numbers portrays that of 1.5 million self-employed with employed personnel, 200,000 have cut their staff .

The lack of liquidity, another of the common hemorrhages by which the union of self-employed workers bleeds, has forced nearly half of the total (42.2%) to have been forced to apply for financing, either through the ICO or any other private entity.

However, 8.9% declare having requested it but not having obtained it.

Despite the promising development of vaccines, and the fact that a vaccination schedule has already been presented that can accelerate the exit from the viral tunnel, the horizon for many freelancers remains dark.

For example, among those who have completed an ERTE and are faced with the impossibility of dismissing an employee within six months - a condition

to be able to benefit from this mechanism - 66.6% find it very difficult to maintain To him eployees.

A decision that, for greater drama, was not made due to lack of liquidity by 35.7% of those surveyed.

With more than eight months of financial and health punishment behind them, and with the blinds being lowered more and more, one in ten freelancers (300,000 in total) believes that they will have no choice but to close.

In fact, if there were a second lockdown, two out of three could not bear it, and for 11% it would mean the definitive closure of their business.

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