The Generalitat of Catalonia has opened a new call for applications for the “TÚ 1” program, which subsidizes the indefinite hiring of an unemployed person by self-employed workers without any employee in their charge. The budget for this program is 15 million euros, 51.5% more than last year, when 9.9 million were allocated.
The objective of this aid is twofold: on the one hand, to support the growth of smaller businesses and professional projects, those of self-employed people who have enough activity, but do not dare to take the step of hiring someone; and on the other, promote the indefinite hiring of unemployed people. Up to three unemployed people registered with the Servi Públic d'Ocupació de Catalunya (SOC) as unemployed job seekers can be hired through this program.
The amount of the “YOU 1” aid is 19,745 euros to finance the hiring of a full-time unemployed person. Hiring can also be done for a part-time job (equal to or greater than 50%) and in this case the amount of the aid will be proportional. The contract must be indefinite and the minimum duration of the contract to receive the aid must be 18 months. The contract must be carried out within a period of, at most, two months from the day following its granting.
Both self-employed workers and single-person limited companies that do not have hired people under their care at the time of submitting the application or during the previous six months can apply for it. In addition, they must have been registered in the special regime for self-employed workers (in the case of natural persons) or registered in the Commercial Registry (in the case of sole proprietorships) for a minimum of one uninterrupted year.
Applications can be submitted until September 28 at 3 p.m., through canalempresa.gencat.cat or tramits.gencat.cat.
In the presentation of the new call, the Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent i Ramió, explained that “we are very satisfied to be able to support projects like this one. We want to be and we are the Government of the Self-Employed, the Government that accompanies, that helps the country's self-employed workers to develop business projects, life projects, in an environment that is evidently increasingly complex from all points of view. ” . Regarding "YOU 1", the councilor highlighted that "it is an innovative call that we promoted last year and that we wanted to continue and expand to help self-employed people."
Torrent has presented the new call for the "TÚ 1" program at the Restory bookstore in Barcelona. Last year, his owner was one of the beneficiaries of the aid, thanks to which she was able to hire a worker for her business.
To “TÚ 1” we must add two more programs to support self-employment that the General Directorate of Labor Relations, Autonomous Work, Security and Labor Health has launched this year: on the one hand, the call for aid to promote of self-employment of young people between 18 and 29 years old, endowed with 13 million euros; and on the other hand, “Consolida't”, the program to support the consolidation, strengthening and reinvention of self-employment in Catalonia, with a budget of 3.7 million euros. The “Consolida't” is aimed at local entities and administrations to offer training programs and personalized advice to self-employed workers, and the call for subsidies is open until September 26.
In total, 31.7 million euros of aid for self-employment, of which 28 million are direct aid. A set of policies with the aim of supporting self-employed people to carry out their professional project, whether to launch it or to consolidate it, help maintain employment or transform for the future.
