Grant extensions for the self employed

The UK government has announced their continued support of the self-employed who are being affected by the impact of Covid-19.

They have extended the grants for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). Two further grants will be paid to those who are eligible, with one grant covering the period 1 November 2020 to 31 January 2021, and the second grant covering the period 1 February 2021 to 30 April 2021.

There have been two rounds of grant support for the self-employed: SEISS-1 and SEISS-2. The second of those (SEISS-2) was supposed to be the final grant. If you are eligible you should apply for this grant before applications close on 19 October 2020.

On 24 September 2020 the Chancellor announced that there would be two more SEISS grants to help support the self-employed over the six months from November 2020 to April 2021.

The third grant (SEISS-3) will be calculated at 20% of your average monthly profits, based on the same profit figures as were used to calculate the SEISS-1 and SEISS-2 grants. These were derived from your self-employed profits as reported on your tax returns for 2016/17 to 2018/19, or the portion of that period when you were self-employed.

You will qualify for the SEISS-3 grant if all of the following apply:

• you were eligible for the previous SEISS grants (even if you didn’t apply for them)
• you are actively trading at the time you claim the grant;
• and your sales have been reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the period from 1 November 2020 to the date of your claim.

We don’t yet know when applications will open for the SEISS-3 grant, but we do know it will be capped at £1,875 for three months, working out at just £625 per month.
A fourth grant (SEISS-4) will be payable for three months to help you survive from February to April 2021. We don’t know how much that grant will be or what the cap will be. The qualifying conditions for the SEISS-4 grant are likely to be similar to those for the SEISS-3 grant.

The profits used as the basis for the SEISS-4 grant will also be your average annual profits derived from your tax returns for 2016/17 to 2018/19, although by the time applications open in February 2021 your tax return for 2019/20 will have been submitted (deadline is 31 January 2021).