The self-employed workers' organization UPTA has warned this Friday that the new regulation allowing the compatibility of pension with employment, in effect since today, leaves the self-employed "at a clear disadvantage" compared to salaried workers.
For the association, it is "especially serious" that a reform aimed at expanding the possibilities of combining retirement and work introduces precisely for self-employed workers a "barrier" that greatly hinders their access.
In this context, UPTA points out that, although the newly implemented regulation allows for the development of self-employment within flexible retirement, it imposes as a requirement not having worked as a self-employed person in the three years prior to retirement.
According to the organization, this condition creates a "hardly understandable" situation, since a professional who has worked for decades as self-employed and reaches retirement age cannot directly transition from managing their business to flexible retirement.
On the contrary, UPTA denounces, this formula is much simpler for those who mostly come from salaried employment and, once retired, choose to start an activity as self-employed fulfilling the established requirements.
The entity understands that this generates "a new difference in treatment" that punishes precisely those who have sustained their economic activity as self-employed for years. "It makes no sense to legally open flexible retirement to self-employment and, at the same time, close the door to those who reach retirement as self-employed," laments the organization.
"Social Security is once again designing a reform fundamentally thinking about salaried work and forces the self-employed to adapt to a model that does not respond to their reality. We cannot accept that after decades contributing to the system we continue to be treated as second-class workers," criticized UPTA president, Eduardo Abad.
For this reason, UPTA has urged the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration to eliminate the three-year requirement and allow self-employed individuals to effectively access flexible retirement without having to previously withdraw from their economic activity.
"If a self-employed person has to abandon their activity for three years to access a modality called flexible retirement, then for self-employed individuals, it has very little flexibility," argues Abad.
Progressive retirement for the self-employed
UPTA distinguishes this problem from another of its historical claims: the implementation of a "true" progressive retirement for self-employed workers, two different debates that, in its view, should be addressed separately.
In this line, the organization argues that progressive retirement should allow a self-employed person who has reached the legal age and meets the conditions to retire to voluntarily choose to continue their activity while receiving a substantial part of the pension generated throughout their career.
UPTA finds it incomprehensible that the current scheme forces an extension of several years of working life to gradually achieve compatibility with 100% of the pension, a percentage that is only reached with a five-year delay. In its view, this period is disproportionate for those who have already reached retirement age and completed their contribution history.
The organization's proposal is that self-employed individuals who, having the right to retire, voluntarily decide to continue working should be able to receive at least 75% of the pension they are entitled to from the start. From that level, it proposes to establish a reasonable progression up to 100%, without forcing the professional to remain active for five more years to achieve total compatibility.
For UPTA, facilitating a gradual withdrawal from self-employment would also have positive effects on one of the major problems of the group: generational change.
In this sense, it emphasizes that thousands of shops, workshops, hospitality businesses, professional activities, and small establishments remain profitable when their owners reach retirement age.
"A well-designed progressive retirement would allow for a gradual reduction in dedication, prepare for the transmission of the activity, and accompany for a period the person who will continue with the business, thus facilitating the continuity of activities that would otherwise risk disappearing with the retirement of their owners," it emphasizes.
"Self-employed workers do not want privileges. We want to stop being the second-class workers of the pension system. If we have contributed and generated our rights, we need the same possibilities to decide how and when we make our transition to retirement," concludes Eduardo Abad.