The Government finalizes a ‘check’ of 3,000 euros for the self-employed in 2022

The Government finalizes the second installment of the business digitization plan financed with EU funds, which will consist of a check for 3,000 euros intended for individual self-employed and those SMEs with less than ten workers. Help will be available, as you may have learned the Economist, starting next year, and joins the first phase of this plan, endowed with a total of 3,067 million euros. The first phase will have a total of 500 million euros and will be allocated to companies with between 10 and 49 workers, so that the second package will be endowed with funds worth 2,500 million.

That is, the second tranche of aid for digitization it will go to the smallest shops and businesses, where in many cases the bases of digitization are nil. According to sources close to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, this measure would be available for the first months of next year, although, as is the case with the first of the tranches that will grant 12,500 euros to those companies with a low digitization index, there is still a lack of tender the companies that will provide the necessary tools for the technologicalization of these businesses.

Therefore, these sources point out, that it is a point yet to be developed within this great modernization plan of the productive fabric. Once the order of bases is published in the next few days, which will include the operation of the program, a public invitation will be issued so that the digitizing agents can join the program and offer their solutions.

Industry sources suggest that the plan loses effectiveness due to the excessive distribution of the fund

However, from the group of self-employed workers they point out the skepticism about the usefulness of these 3,000 euros for the final digitization goal. They recall that this last group of micro-SMEs and freelancers are the ones that have incorporated the least innovation and technology into their businesses, which also implies a training deficit in the matter that can make the extension of the aid not serve to achieve the final objective of modernization , given the inability of workers to deploy the possibilities offered by the new tools.

For this reason, from the group they suggest that given the meager amount foreseen for this second round of aid for digitization, it is suggested that a training plan be opened to prepare workers when approaching the process, so that it is the most possible cash.

Similarly, industry sources point to the Economist that the plan loses effectiveness due to the excessive distribution of the fund, and they point out that it would be preferable to provide fewer freelancers and micro-SMEs with more financing, but with a greater monetary amount, which really allows them to equip and expand the business through digital channels, so that the process is completed with this provision.

Between the two groups identified by the Government, there are approximately 145,000 small companies (10 to 49 employees) that would be the recipients of the first line of concessions of the Digital Kit. While in the other group, there are approximately 1,100,000 micro-businesses (one to nine employees) and the 1,600,000 self-employed workers in Spain, who would be the target of this second tranche of aid worth 3,000 euros.

In order to reach all the companies throughout our geography, the Government announced for the deployment of the first part of the plan the opening of 50 Acelera Pyme offices for rural areas, in addition to the 90 already projected.