Self-employed workers can apply for a second emergency coronavirus grant worth up to £6,570 from today.
The cash is to help those who work for themselves if their income has been negatively impacted by the effect of the pandemic.
What is the grant?
Under the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS), the government will cover up to 70 per cent of your trading profits over three months.
It’s capped at £2,190 a month so the maximum you will be able to claim in total is £6,750.
The idea is to give businesses some breathing space if they are operating fine now, but start to struggle later on in the year, say in September, when they may be able to still apply for the grant.
You don’t have to repay the grant if you’re eligible, but it will be subject to income tax and self-employed national insurance.
This is the second grant launched for self-employed people.
The first three-month grant was available until July 13 and it’s been assumed that it covered three months’ worth of loss of earnings in March, April and May.
It paid a larger 80 per cent of earnings, with the total paid capped at a higher £7,500.
Am I eligible to claim?
In order to claim the second pay-out, self-employed workers have to prove they have been adversely affected by coronavirus on or after July 14, 2020.
To be eligible, you also must have filed a tax return for 2018/19, meaning you must have been self-employed before April 6, 2019.
The grants are calculated based on an average of your profits over three tax years – 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.
If you didn’t trade in 2016/17, then it will be based on your average profits in 2017/18 and 2018/19, or in 2018/19 if that’s the only year you traded.
You must also earn more than half of your total income from self-employment and your trading profit must be less than £50,000 a year to qualify.
Self-employed workers who are company directors or run their businesses as limited companies cannot apply.
But if you claim maternity allowance this will not affect your eligibility for the grant.
You can be eligible for the second grant regardless of whether or not you claimed the first payment.
But there are growing fears that some businesses will miss out on the second grant if they can’t prove their work has been disrupted after mid-July – even if they’re already struggling.
How do I claim?
You can make your claim via this link
Self-employed workers will need the following info to claim:
- Self-assessment unique taxpayer reference (UTR) – if you do not have this find out how to get your lost UTR
- National insurance number – if you do not have this find out how to get your lost national insurance number
- Government Gateway user ID and password – if you do not have a user ID, you can create one when you make your claim
- UK bank details (only provide bank account details where a Bacs payment can be accepted).
What is the deadline to claim?
You have until October 19, 2020 to apply for the second SEISS grant.