# Claim the autónomo unemployment benefit

> Who can claim the autónomo unemployment benefit (cese de actividad), how much it pays, for how long, and how to apply to your mutua in time.

- Page: https://autonomo.eus/steps/cese-actividad
- Part: Part D: Run your business
- For: Everyone
- Last checked: 14 October 2026

If your business has to stop, or shrinks badly for reasons outside your control, you can claim a monthly benefit (*prestación por cese de actividad*) from your *mutua*. It pays 70% of your average contribution base, for 4 to 24 months, and your mutua pays your Social Security fee while it lasts. **Apply to your mutua by the last day of the month after you stop. Closing your business by choice does not qualify.**

## Before you start

- Your Social Security de-registration (*baja en el RETA*), done in [Import@ss](https://portal.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/importass/importass/Categorias/altas%2C+bajas+y+modificaciones/bajas+y+modificaciones/baja_trabajo_autonomo) on the day you stop or up to 6 days after
- Your tax de-registration with your Hacienda Foral, on the census form (*modelo 036*, or *modelo 037* in Álava). See [Stop being autónomo or leave Spain](https://autonomo.eus/steps/closing-down)
- The name of your mutua (*mutua colaboradora con la Seguridad Social*). You chose it when you [registered with Social Security](https://autonomo.eus/steps/register-social-security); it is on your proof of registration
- Proof that you are up to date with your fees: a certificate from the TGSS (*certificado de estar al corriente*). Check first that you owe nothing with the [debt check service](https://sede.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/sede/sede/Ciudadanos/recaudacion/tgss_recaudacion_210217) of the Social Security online office
- Your [quarterly returns](https://autonomo.eus/steps/quarterly-returns), [records](https://autonomo.eus/steps/records) and invoices for the last two years, to prove the losses or the drop in income
- Your registration as a job seeker with [Lanbide](https://autonomo.eus/steps/lanbide-grants), done online with [the Lanbide registration form](https://web.lanbide.eus/apps/ALTA_LANBIDE.GE_ALTA_LANBIDE_INI?LG=C) (BakQ, Izenpe or FNMT certificate) or at a Lanbide office by appointment
- Your TIE or passport, and your *libro de familia* or children's documents if you have children

## Who qualifies

You must meet all of these:

- At least 12 months of contributions for cese de actividad in the 24 months before you stopped. The months you paid the reduced flat fee (*tarifa plana*) do not count: that fee does not include the cese de actividad contribution.
- You are up to date with your Social Security fees on the day you stop.
- You have not reached the ordinary pension age, unless you do not yet have enough years for a pension.
- You have de-registered from the RETA because of the closure. The partial cases below are the exception.
- You stopped for one of the accepted reasons, and you can prove it.

The accepted reasons for a full closure are:

| Reason | What you must show |
| --- | --- |
| Losses | Losses in one full year above 10% of that year's income. Your first year of activity does not count. |
| Debts being enforced | Court or administrative enforcement of debts worth at least 30% of last year's income. |
| Insolvency | A court declaration of insolvency (*concurso*) that stops you working. |
| Force majeure | An event outside your control, such as a fire or a flood, that stops the activity for good or for a time. |
| Loss of licence | You lose an administrative licence you need to work, for a reason that is not an offence on your part. |
| Gender or sexual violence | You are a woman who has to stop because of gender or sexual violence. |
| Divorce or separation | You worked as family help in your ex-spouse's business and a court ruling ends the marriage. |

Since 2023 there is also a partial benefit (*cese parcial*) for a business that shrinks without closing:

- **You have employees.** You cut the hours of all your staff by 60%, or suspend at least 60% of their contracts, and your income fell by 75% over the last two tax quarters compared with the same quarters a year earlier, and your monthly net income is below the minimum wage (*salario mínimo interprofesional*).
- **You have no employees.** Your due debts are above 150% of your income for the last two tax quarters, that income fell by 75% compared with a year earlier, and your monthly net income is below the minimum wage. Debts to Social Security and to the tax office do not count.
- **Partial force majeure.** A public authority declares an emergency that affects your sector or your workplace, your income falls by 75%, and your monthly income is below the minimum wage.

In the partial cases you stay registered and keep working. The benefit is 50% of your base instead of 70%, and the mutua covers half of your monthly fee, which you keep paying yourself.

Non-EU citizens: being on this benefit is one of the accepted grounds for [renewing your residence and work permit](https://autonomo.eus/steps/renew-permit), so claim it before your permit runs out.

## How much and for how long

**How much.** The benefit is 70% of your base (*base reguladora*): the average of the contribution bases you paid on in the 12 months before you stopped. If you paid the minimum base, your benefit is 70% of that base. The payment has a floor and a ceiling, set as a percentage of the IPREM (*indicador público de renta de efectos múltiples*) plus one sixth. The IPREM is €600 a month, the value set for 2023 and still the latest on the Social Security IPREM page in October 2026:

| | Minimum | Maximum |
| --- | --- | --- |
| No children | 80%: €560 | 175%: €1,225 |
| One child | 107%: €749 | 200%: €1,400 |
| Two or more children | 107%: €749 | 225%: €1,575 |

The minimum does not apply if you paid on a base below the minimum base. The floor and ceiling do not apply to the partial benefit. The mutua withholds income tax (IRPF) from the payment.

**For how long.** It depends on how many months of cese de actividad contributions you have in the 48 months before you stopped:

| Months contributed | Months of benefit |
| --- | --- |
| 12 to 17 | 4 |
| 18 to 23 | 6 |
| 24 to 29 | 8 |
| 30 to 35 | 10 |
| 36 to 42 | 12 |
| 43 to 47 | 16 |
| 48 or more | 24 |

If you apply in time, the benefit starts on the first day of the month after you stop. The months on the benefit count as contributed months. You can claim again only 18 months after the last award.

**During the benefit.** Your mutua pays your Social Security fee for common contingencies, so your record stays unbroken and your public healthcare continues. You cannot work for yourself or for an employer, so you cannot invoice. If you start work, tell the mutua and the benefit stops or pauses.

## How to do it

1. Stop the activity and de-register. Request your *baja* in [Import@ss](https://portal.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/importass/importass/Categorias/altas%2C+bajas+y+modificaciones/bajas+y+modificaciones/baja_trabajo_autonomo) on the day you stop or within 6 days after, and file your tax *baja* with your Hacienda Foral, as explained in [Stop being autónomo or leave Spain](https://autonomo.eus/steps/closing-down). Keep both receipts. Skip this step if you are claiming the partial benefit.
2. Register as a job seeker (*demandante de empleo*) with Lanbide, online with [the Lanbide registration form](https://web.lanbide.eus/apps/ALTA_LANBIDE.GE_ALTA_LANBIDE_INI?LG=C) or at an office by appointment. Download the proof. [Lanbide](https://autonomo.eus/steps/lanbide-grants) explains how its offices work.
3. Fill in your mutua's application form for the *prestación por cese de actividad*. Every mutua has one on its website. Depending on the mutua you send it through its online form, by email or in person at an office. The form asks for your bank account and the income tax rate to withhold. Mutuas outside Euskadi also ask for *modelo 145*; in the Basque Country it is not needed.
4. Attach the documents: your TIE or passport, the two *baja* receipts, the TGSS certificate that you are up to date, your last two or three fee receipts, your Lanbide registration, a sworn statement (*declaración jurada*) of the reason you stopped, and the proof of that reason. For losses or a drop in income, that proof is your tax paperwork: quarterly returns (*modelo 130* and the IVA returns), your annual income tax return, your records of income and expenses, and your invoices. For force majeure, a description of the event and any official report. For divorce, the court ruling. Add your *libro de familia* or children's documents to get the higher ceiling.
5. Submit by the last day of the month after you stopped. The mutua checks the file and sends you a written decision (*resolución*).
6. Within 15 working days of receiving the decision, you must be registered with Lanbide and have signed the activity commitment (*compromiso de actividad*). If you registered in step 2 you have already done this. Stay registered for the whole benefit and go to the training and guidance sessions Lanbide calls you to, or you lose the benefit and may have to pay it back.
7. The mutua pays you monthly from the start date, and pays your Social Security fee for the same months.

## Where

At your mutua, the one named on your Social Security registration. If you have not changed mutua, it is the one you chose in Import@ss when you registered. Every mutua has a cese de actividad page with its form and the list of documents, for example [Mutua Universal](https://www.mutuauniversal.net/es/servicios/prestaciones-economicas/prestacion-por-cese-de-actividad-para-autonomos/cese-actividad-2023/) and [Asepeyo](https://prestaciones.asepeyo.es/solicitud-prestacion-cese-de-actividad-de-trabajadores-autonomos/). For questions about your contribution record or your *baja*, call the TGSS (*Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social*) on 915 410 291 or 901 502 050, or see [how to contact Social Security](https://autonomo.eus/steps/offices#contact-social-security). For job-seeker registration, see [Lanbide](https://autonomo.eus/steps/lanbide-grants).

## Common mistakes

- Applying late. The deadline is the last day of the month after you stop. Every day of delay is a day of benefit lost, and if you apply late the mutua does not pay your fees for the months in between.
- Not de-registering first. For a full closure the mutua needs your *baja* from the RETA and from Hacienda. Without them, the file is rejected.
- Counting the flat-fee months. Your first 12 months on the *tarifa plana* (24 if it was extended) carry no cese de actividad contribution. Someone who registered 18 months ago with the flat fee has 6 months of cese de actividad contributions, not 18, and does not qualify yet.
- Closing by choice. A drop in income is not enough on its own: you need to prove losses above 10% of income in a full year, or one of the other reasons in the table. Keep your records in order from the start.
- Not registering with Lanbide. The mutua needs your job-seeker registration, and you must stay registered and go to the sessions you are called to.
- Working while on the benefit. Invoicing one client or taking a part-time job ends the benefit and can mean paying it back. Tell the mutua first.
- Owing Social Security fees. Pay any arrears before you stop, and keep the receipts.

## Official sources

- [Social Security: protection for cessation of activity, requirements, duration and amount (art. 331 LGSS)](https://www.seg-social.es/wps/portal/wss/internet/Trabajadores/TrabajadoresMar/2277?changeLanguage=es)
- [Social Security: cessation of activity, procedure and deadline](https://www.seg-social.es/wps/portal/wss/internet/InformacionUtil/44539/2571?changeLanguage=es)
- [Import@ss: practical guide for autónomos (benefit, flat fee and de-registration)](https://portal.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/importass/importass/Colectivos/trabajo+autonomo/guia)
- [Import@ss: Baja en trabajo autónomo](https://portal.seg-social.gob.es/wps/portal/importass/importass/Categorias/altas%2C+bajas+y+modificaciones/bajas+y+modificaciones/baja_trabajo_autonomo)
- [Social Security: IPREM](https://www.seg-social.es/wps/portal/wss/internet/Trabajadores/CotizacionRecaudacionTrabajadores/10721/10957/9932/730)
- [Real Decreto-ley 13/2022 (partial benefit, 50% rate, deadline)](https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2022-12482)
- [Real Decreto 1541/2011 (how to prove the reason, documents, job-seeker registration)](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2011-17173)
- [Ley 32/2010 (original law on cessation of activity)](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2010-12616)
- [Lanbide: register as a job seeker](https://web.lanbide.eus/apps/ALTA_LANBIDE.GE_ALTA_LANBIDE_INI?LG=C)
- [Ministry of Inclusion: renewal of the self-employed residence and work permit](https://www.inclusion.gob.es/web/migraciones/w/15.-renovacion-de-la-autorizacion-de-residencia-temporal-y-trabajo-por-cuenta-propia)

Next step: [Get your health card](https://autonomo.eus/steps/health-card.md)

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