Self-employed or autoentrepreneurs whose activity is penalized by the fifth wave of Covid-19 will benefit from reductions in social security contributions and a “exceptional financial assistance”announced Wednesday, January 26 at Agence France-Presse, the Minister Delegate for Small and Medium Enterprises, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
The government has decided to set up “a safety net for the self-employed who have worked little or not at all due to health restrictions”explained the Minister, while a demonstration took place in front of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, at the call of several organizations of independents.
There will be “two types of measures: on the one hand, a reduction in social security contributions for December and January according to terms specific to their status”detailed Mr. Lemoyne.
Thus, those who lose more than 65% of turnover will be able to deduct from their activity for the first quarter of 2022 the turnover of December and January. And if their drop in turnover goes from 30 to 65%, still for December and January, they will be able to deduct half of the turnover achieved from their activity in the first quarter.
The self-employed entrepreneurs concerned by this aid are those in the S1 and S1 bis sectors, which concern hotels, bars, restaurants, travel agencies, performing arts, sports clubs, museums, casinos, film production , said Mr. Lemoyne.
Aid whose amount is not yet calibrated
The second support device is a “exceptional financial assistance” who will address “to freelancers, self-employed in the hotel, catering, nightclub sectors, such as DJs, nightlife, events, travel agencies”announced the minister. “Its amount still needs to be calibrated” in the days to come and autoentrepreneurs will be able to request it on the sites Urssaf.fr, Secu-independents.fr Where Autoentrepreneur.urssaf.fradded Mr. Lemoyne.
This aid, still for December and January, will be paid by the Council for the social protection of self-employed workers. so far, “even in sectors that benefit from aid, the self-employed are excluded from all state aid”complained Hind Elidrissi, spokesperson for the “neo-union” of independent workers, Indépendants.co.
Following a meeting at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Mme Elidrissi felt he had been “heard” by Mr. Lemoyne’s advisers, and was pleased that it was a ” welfare “paid “directly to the contractor” and not serving to pay off the debts of his business. But the organizations received have asked that this aid not be limited to people working in the sectors mentioned by the minister and fear above all that it will only be ” punctual “she added.
“We asked for four months”, from December to March, but “we have no return on that”added the spokeswoman, specifying that she had also claimed 1,500 euros per month for the self-employed with no charges and up to 3,000 euros for those who did.
For the president of the Fédération des autoentrepreneurs, Grégoire Leclercq, the government’s announcement is to “the smoke” : “There is nothing new in fact”according to him, because the Council for the social protection of the self-employed, of which Mr. Leclercq is a director, already exists and its budget had been increased from 60 to 68 million euros in December. “It is not with this sum that we are going to deal with the cases of autoentrepreneurs and self-employed workers”he fears. “We held the hand of these self-employed workers for almost twenty-four months and we completely let them go in the middle of the fifth wave”he regrets.