Eligible for extended self-employed scheme?

The Chancellor has confirmed that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is to be extended for a final three-month period to 31 August 2020. The maximum grant for the final 3 months of the scheme will be based on 70% of eligible earnings (previous quarter 80%). This means that the SEISS will in total provide qualifying self-employed workers up to 6 months financial support from the government.

The following points list some of the most important eligibility criteria for the scheme:

• Applicants must be self-employed or a member of a trading partnership, voluntary work, or duties as an armed forces reservist.
• Carry on a trade which has been adversely affected by COVID-19,
• Have filed a tax return for 2018-19.
• Have traded in 2019-20; be currently trading at the point of application (or would be except for COVID-19) and intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020-21,
• Have trading profits of less than £50,000 and more than half of total income from self-employment.
• Individuals can continue to work, start a new trade or take on other employment including voluntary work, or duties as an armed forces reservist.

Eligible applicants will have to wait until the last month of the claim period, August 2020, to make a claim. The maximum grant for the three-months will be £6,570 (Previous quarter £7,500) paid in a single instalment. It will be possible for a qualifying self-employed person to claim for the second grant even if they had not claimed for the first grant.

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