Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

The Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) supports self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships). This scheme allows you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 per month for the next 3 months. Claim a grant through the Self-employment Income Support Scheme.

Created to support those who work for themselves who are now experiencing financial difficulty, the scheme’s aims are to bring parity across the lives of all working people during this difficult time.

How the grant works

The scheme provides critical support to the self-employed in the form of grants, each available for three month periods.

The fourth grant will cover the period February 2021 to April 2021 and the fifth grant will cover the period May 2021 to September 2021.

The grant does not need to be repaid but will be subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance.

The fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant will be set at 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits, paid out in a single instalment, capped at £7,500.

The fourth grant will take into account 2019 to 2020 tax returns and will be open to those who became self-employed in tax year 2019 to 2020. The rest of the eligibility criteria remain unchanged.

Your eligibility for the scheme will now be based on your submitted 2019 to 2020 tax return. This may also affect the amount of the fourth grant which could be higher or lower than previous grants you may have received.

Who Can Claim

To be eligible for the fourth grant you must be a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership. To work out your eligibility HMRC will first look at your 2019 to 2020 Self Assessment tax return. Your trading profits must be no more than £50,000 and at least equal to your non-trading income.

If you’re not eligible based on your 2019 to 2020 Self Assessment tax return, HMRC will then look at the tax years 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020. You must also have traded in both tax years:

  • 2019 to 2020 and submitted your tax return by 2 March 2021
  • 2020 to 2021

You must either:

  • be currently trading but are impacted by reduced demand due to coronavirus
  • have been trading but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus

You must also declare that:

  • you intend to continue to trade
  • you reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus

Further support

There will be a fifth and final grant covering May to September. You will be able to claim from late July if you are eligible for the fifth grant. The amount of the fifth grant will be determined by how much your turnover has been reduced in the year April 2020 to April 2021.

The fifth grant will be worth:

  • 80% of 3 months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500, for those with a turnover reduction of 30% or more
  • 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits, capped at £2,850, for those with a turnover reduction of less than 30%

Further details will be provided on the fifth grant in due course.

How to claim

The online claims service for the fourth grant will be available from late April 2021 until 31 May 2021. If you are eligible, HMRC will contact you in mid-April to give you your personal claim date. This will be the date that you can make your claim from. There will be more guidance about the fourth grant in due course.

  • Self Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) – if you do not have this find out how to get your lost UTR via the gov.uk website.
  • National Insurance number – if you do not have this find out how to get your lost National Insurance number via the gov.uk website.
  • Government Gateway user ID and password – if you do not have a user ID, or have lost it, you can create one or find out how to recover your login details when you make your claim
  • UK bank details

Other Benefits for Self Employed

  • If you are sick or if you have been advised to self-isolate. You will be able to claim Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) from day one instead of day eight.  Payments have been raised so that the self-employed receive the same amount as someone on statutory sick pay. This is currently £94.25 a week. You can make a claim for new style Employment and Support Allowance on the Government’s website. You’ll need to fill in a NSESAF1 claim form to apply for “New Style” ESA.
  • Claiming Universal Credit top ‘Top Up’ your income.  The minimum income floor (MIF) applies to those who’ve been self-employed for more than 12 months. The MIF assumes that self-employed people work 35 hours a week and earn the minimum wage. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) compares their real earnings with the MIF to work out their Universal Credit award. For full details go to the Self-employment and Universal Credit page on the Gov.uk website.

The Scottish Government have set up a business support helpline (0300 303 0660) for all business support enquiries in Scotland and request that businesses needing guidance contact them in the first instance on this number. Additional advice is available here >

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