COVID-19 Business updates for 26th March

Self-employed Income Support Scheme

Today the Chancellor announced new, very generous support for the self-employed.

Those eligible for the scheme

• Those who earn the majority of their income from self-employment
• Had average profits of no more than £50,000 over the last three years
• Those who were self employed during 2018/19 and are still self employed during 2019/20
• If they report that their income has been negatively impacted as a result of coronavirus

If you match the above criteria then you will be eligible for a taxable grant equal to 80% of the average profits you reported across the three years, from April 2016 to April 2019, up to a limit of £2,500 per month.

If you have traded for less than 3 years, but meet all of the above criteria, then your average will be calculated on the length of time you have traded, up to 5 April 2019.

The government has chosen a policy that, for those self-employed people who can still carry on working at some level, is more generous than the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) for employees.

Self-employed people will be eligible for this scheme however small their fall in income whereas, as an employee, you cannot work at all if they want to qualify for the JRS.

As this self-employed income support scheme (SEISS) is so difficult to administer, the payment will not be made until June, but will be a lump sum covering 3 months.

This delay means that you may have to rely on borrowing or welfare benefits to cover short falls in income until the payment is made.