Cese de actividad for autónomos: requirements and amount

Cese de actividad (cessation of activity) is the benefit you receive as an autónomo (self-employed person) when you have to close your business or cut it back sharply for reasons beyond your control. Everyone calls it unemployment benefit for autónomos. Contributing to it is compulsory and it is part of the cover of the RETA, the self-employed Social Security scheme (article 327.1 of the General Social Security Law, Ley General de la Seguridad Social).

It is managed by the mutua (the Social Security partner insurer) you choose when you register, as we explain in how to register as an autónomo in Spain. Here is who can claim it, how much, for how long and how to apply, with the article of the law behind each rule.

What it covers

The cover has two parts (article 329.1):

• A monthly cash benefit for permanent or temporary cessation of the activity.
• Your autónomo contribution, which the mutua pays while you receive the benefit. You contribute on a base equal to the benefit's calculation base and never below the scheme's minimum base.

Requirements

To qualify you must meet all of these (article 330.1):

1. Be affiliated and registered in the RETA.
2. Have contributed to cese de actividad for at least 12 months within the 24 months immediately before the cessation (article 338.1). Only cese de actividad contributions count (article 338.4.a). The first 12 months of the tarifa plana (reduced flat rate for new autónomos) do not include this contribution (article 38 ter.1 of Ley 20/2007), so they do not count.
3. Be in a legal situation of cessation for one of the causes in the law, sign the activity agreement in article 3 of Ley 3/2023 (the Employment Law) and be available for the training and guidance activities your region's public employment service calls you to.
4. If the cessation is permanent, not have reached ordinary retirement age, unless you lack the contribution period for a pension.
5. Be up to date with your contributions. If you are not, the mutua invites you to pay within 30 calendar days and, if you pay, your right is unaffected.

If you have employees, before ceasing you must meet your obligations and follow the procedures of employment law towards them (article 330.2).

The causes that qualify

The cessation must be involuntary. The law expressly excludes anyone who closes or interrupts their activity by their own choice (article 331.2.a). The valid causes are these (article 331.1):

• Economic, technical, production or organisational reasons that make carrying on unviable: losses above 10% of income in a full year (not counting the first year of activity), court or administrative enforcement of debts reaching 30% of the previous year's income or an insolvency ruling (concurso) that prevents you from continuing. If you have premises open to the public, you must close or transfer them while you receive the benefit.
• Force majeure that forces you to stop temporarily or permanently.
• Loss of the administrative licence your activity requires, unless it is due to a criminal offence.
• Gender-based or sexual violence that forces the worker to stop.
• Divorce or separation when you worked as a family helper in your former spouse's business.

There are specific rules for the economically dependent autónomo who loses their main client (article 333) and for the director or shareholder of a company: they must leave the post involuntarily and the company must have losses or equity below two thirds of its share capital (article 334). If that is you, read what an autónomo societario is.

How much you receive

The calculation base is the average of the bases you contributed on in the 12 consecutive months immediately before the cessation. The benefit is 70% of that base for the whole period (article 339.1 and 2).

An example: if you contributed on €1.274,51 for those 12 months, the minimum base of general bracket 6 in 2026, your benefit is €892,16 a month. On top of that the mutua pays your contribution. That is why the base you choose matters: a higher base means a higher benefit. How to change it is in how to change your autónomo contribution base.

The benefit has a maximum and a minimum set on the monthly IPREM (indicador público de rentas de efectos múltiples, the public income benchmark) increased by one sixth, the one in force when the right arises (article 339.3 and 4):

• Maximum: 175% of the IPREM with no dependent children, 200% with one child and 225% with two or more.
• Minimum: 80% of the IPREM with no dependent children and 107% with children.

Dependent children are those under 26 and older ones with a disability of at least 33% who live with you and have no income equal to or above the minimum wage (salario mínimo interprofesional).

How long it lasts

The duration depends on your cese de actividad contributions in the previous 48 months, with at least 12 of them within the last 24 (article 338.1):

Contributions used for one benefit do not count again for the next. You can apply for a new one once 18 months have passed since the previous one was granted (article 338.3 and 4).

How to apply

1. Prepare the documents for the cessation. A sworn statement with the reason and the effective date, plus the documents for the cause (article 332.1). For economic reasons: the accounting records showing the losses and your IVA (VAT) and IRPF (income tax) returns. For a permanent cessation on these grounds you also need your deregistration from Hacienda's census and from the RETA. Both are explained in how to deregister as an autónomo.
2. Submit the application to your mutua, the one that covers your occupational contingencies (article 337.1). If they are covered by a Social Security managing body rather than a mutua, the application goes to the State Public Employment Service, SEPE (article 346.3).
3. Do it in time: by the last day of the month after the cessation. For economic reasons, force majeure and other causes proven with documents, the period runs from the date shown on them (article 337.4). If you are late you do not lose it, but the days of delay are deducted from the benefit and the mutua only pays your contribution from the month after the application (article 337.5 and 6).

For economic reasons, the benefit starts the day after your RETA deregistration takes effect. For the other causes of total cessation, on the first day of the month after that deregistration (article 337.2).

Partial cessation: claiming without closing

Since 01/01/2023, under Real Decreto-ley 13/2022, you can claim a benefit without closing the business in two cases (article 331.1.a, points 4 and 5):

• If you have employees: you have cut the working hours of the whole workforce by 60% or suspended the contracts of at least 60% of it. In addition, in the two tax quarters before the application your income has fallen by 75% compared with the same periods of the previous year or years. And your monthly net earnings are below the minimum wage (or below your contribution base, if that is lower).
• If you have no employees: your enforceable debts to creditors exceed 150% of your income in the two previous tax quarters and that income has fallen by 75% compared with the same periods of the previous year or years. Your monthly net earnings must also be below the minimum wage (or your base, if lower). Debts to Social Security and Hacienda do not count.

The differences from total cessation:

• The benefit is 50% of the calculation base, without the IPREM maximum or minimum (article 339.2 and 3).
• You do not deregister from the RETA (article 332.1).
• You can keep working in your business as long as your monthly net earnings do not exceed the minimum wage (or your base, if lower) (article 342.1).
• Together with the benefit the mutua pays you 50% of your contribution and you pay the full contribution (article 329.1.b).
• If you have employees, the benefit starts on the first day of the month after you notify the labour authority. If you do not, on the first day of the month after your application (article 337.2).

Force majeure can also give rise to a temporary partial cessation when a public authority has declared an emergency and your income falls by 75% (article 331.1.b).

While you receive it

Total cessation is incompatible with working as an employee or on your own account (article 342.1). If you work, the benefit is suspended and, if the work lasts 12 months or more, it ends (articles 340 and 341). You must tell the mutua about any change that affects your right and repay anything you receive unduly (article 347).

Facturaz does not handle the application to the mutua. What does save you time is having in order what they will ask for: if you keep your invoices and expenses in Facturaz, your record books (libros registro) and the figures for each modelo 303 and modelo 130 are in your account. The plans are on pricing for autónomos.