When can I apply for unemployment benefits for self-employed workers?

An important recommendation is to be well informed about this process. That is, before closing your business, make sure you are entitled to unemployment benefits. Confirm if you meet the basic requirements for application and approval. You should know that most cessations are denied for not meeting the most basic requirements, or even for not submitting the requested documentation on time.

The unemployment benefit must also be requested when you already fall under one of the causes that give right to cessation of activity. For each cause you must meet the specific conditions required. For example, you have initiated bankruptcy proceedings or losses of more than 10% over a period.

What are the basic requirements to apply for self-employed unemployment benefits?

If you already meet the above conditions, you will still need to meet the following general requirements:

• 1. Involuntary closure: Your closure must be involuntary, not voluntary as this will not be approved. You cannot close your business because you want to start a different project or because you think you will do better in another field, and expect to receive self-employed unemployment benefits.
• 2. RETA: You need to be registered in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) during previous months.
• 3. Properly justified: You need to justify the causes established by law and demonstrate that you are really presenting a suitable case for the application. You will need to submit the necessary documents.
• 4. 12 months as self-employed: You need to have contributed for at least 12 months as self-employed to receive this type of benefit.
• 5. No debts with Tax Agency: You must not have debts with either the Tax Agency or Social Security. Just think that no one will be granted money if they already owe money.
• 6. Not having reached retirement age: With one session you could apply for cessation if you are over 66.5 years old if you have not yet met the minimum contribution period for retirement. That is, contributing less than 15 years.
• 7. Activity commitment: This requirement is somewhat abstract, but indicates that while receiving cessation benefits you must take responsibility for participating in training, guidance or similar actions.

If you meet most of these requirements, you could approach your Mutual Insurance Company in charge of managing this action.

In what types of cases can I apply for self-employed unemployment benefits?

The causes are reasons, and basically you can apply for self-employed unemployment benefits for ETOP Reasons. In other words, reasons of type:

• Economic.
• Technical.
• Organizational.
• Production.

These must prevent continuing with economic activity, and within them are the most common causes for which you can request cessation of activities. In each of them, it remains necessary to close the business or transfer it to a third party.

Specifically, these are the most common cases to access cessation of activities as self-employed:

Closure due to losses

As self-employed, you will have to subtract your expenses from your yearly income, and the losses you obtain must be at least 10%.

Closure due to bankruptcy

If you are looking for the simplest cause to obtain a cessation of activities, this is the easiest to prove. With it, you will have to be involved in bankruptcy proceedings that prevent you from continuing with your business.

Closure due to judicial seizures

Not only must you suffer a closure due to seizure, but you will also have to prove the debts you have that have caused such seizure. The debts must represent at least 30% of the previous year's income.

Closure due to force majeure

This refers to extraordinary reasons or unforeseeable events that harm your business. For example, COVID or the La Palma volcano eruption, another example is DANA.

To confirm that you were harmed, you have to submit administrative documents certifying that the catastrophe or extraordinary cause has been responsible for making you close your business. A declaration of catastrophic zone would suffice, although within this cause there are two variations:

• - Definitive closure due to force majeure.
• - Temporary closure due to force majeure.

Within temporary closure due to force majeure, there are simultaneously two options. Total business closure and partial business closure. The latter is intended for self-employed with two premises. One can be affected by force majeure, and the other not. Only one can close in this case, and therefore receive its cessation.

Closure due to license loss

Among other closure causes is the possibility of losing the license, and if this is essential to operate, you may be entitled to unemployment benefits. But if you have lost the license due to some type of infraction, you will not be entitled to cessation of activities.

Closure due to gender violence

If you are a woman and have suffered gender violence, this can also be a cause to request unemployment benefits. For this, you will have to prove it with social services, or with a record. You can access this temporarily without deregistering.

Divorce or separation

This can be used as a cause if you are a collaborating self-employed person and work as an employee in a family business that is self-employed. If you worked in a business with your partner and divorce or separation occurs, you will have access to this.

New causes for requesting unemployment benefits

Since 2022, some reasons have been added to request cessation of activities, and with this, the possibilities of receiving this right have increased. These are:

• - Cessation of activity due to debts for self-employed without employees:

Those self-employed who do not have employees in their charge can request cessation of activity if they have debts for two consecutive quarters.

Or also debts that represent 60% of their income. Within these debts, debts with the Tax Agency or Social Security cannot be included.

• - Cessation of activity due to reduction of workers' working hours:

Self-employed who do have employees can also request cessation of activity when they have used an ERTE (Temporary Employment Regulation File) to reduce their workers' working hours by at least 60%.

To request this, two conditions must be met. The first is to have experienced a reduction in the two quarters prior to the application of 75% of their income compared to the same period of time in the previous year. And the second is not to reach the SMI (Minimum Interprofessional Salary).

How much can I receive for self-employed unemployment benefits?

Perhaps this is the most important question to resolve, and in reality, the answer is not far from the amount that a salaried unemployed person would receive. The benefit for cessation of activity for self-employed is calculated by applying 70% to the regulatory base. That is, the average of the base for which you have contributed in the 12 months prior to cessation.

Due to the entry into force of the Real Income Contribution System, your contribution base automatically adjusts to your net returns. For example:

This amount would be received monthly. Although it is important to consider that the amount of the benefit will always be limited by IMPREN (The Public Indicator of Multiple Effect Income). The value of IMPREN for 2025 is estimated at 615 euros monthly.

So, the maximum you could receive would be 1,076.25 euros. Therefore, you need to stay updated on the value of IMPREN and the contribution base every year to know how much you could receive for cessation of activities according to your particular case.

How long does the self-employed unemployment benefit last?

The duration will depend on how long you have contributed as self-employed without resorting to unemployment benefits. You must have contributed for at least one year for this. Your counter will start from the 12 months of contribution, upon completing this time you will be entitled to four months of cessation of activity.

The longer you contribute, the more months of unemployment benefits you will be entitled to. Although, consider that since 2020 many Spaniards benefited from the cessation of activity and collected these benefits due to the pandemic. With this, their accumulative could have reached zero.

So far it is known that the cessation of activity due to DANA does not consume unemployment.

How to request self-employed unemployment benefits?

You will only have to request the cessation of activity on your corresponding Mutual Insurance Company's website. For this, you will have to fill out the forms that will be given to you and add the requested requirements.

The information to complete the forms is quite basic. Some data such as the date of closure of your business or the causes of closure will be these. Depending on the type of cessation, certain documents will be requested from you.

For example, for cessation due to divorce, they will require the judicial resolution of divorce, while for cessation due to economic loss, you will be requested VAT and IRPF models to justify the decrease in income. You can submit the application until the last day of the month following the one in which the cessation of activity occurred.