Self-Employment Income Support Scheme – third grant opens 30 November

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme comprises four grants. The first two are now closed, but the third grant, which covers November to January, will open on 30 November. 

You can get as much as £7,500. This is made up of 80% of three months' worth of average monthly trading profits capped at £2,500/per month. To calculate this HMRC looks at your tax returns from 2018/19, 2017/18 and 2016/17. This is exactly what the first grant was worth.

Are you eligible for the third grant? 

New. You need to prove a "significant reduction" in trading profits.  This can be for one of two reasons - either because of reduced demand, activity or capacity. OR you're temporarily unable to trade. 

• You must intend to continue to trade. You cannot make a claim if you have plans to close your business. 
• You must earn at least 50% of your total income from self-employment. 
• Your average trading profit must be less than £50,000/year.
• You don't need to have applied for an earlier grant to get the others. As long as you meet the eligibility criteria.
• You CAN keep working if you claim the grant. 

Though you need to declare your business has been impacted for the period you're claiming for. HMRC will check for fraudulent claims.

How to apply for a SEISS grant

You need to apply via the official Government claims portal â€“ though applications for the third grant won't open until Monday 30 November. HMRC will be writing to all eligible customers to provide them with a slot - between 30 November and 4 December - in which to apply. 

If you don’t hear from HMRC, but think you are eligible, you can use the online claim process to check if you can claim. And don't worry if you can't make your allocated slot, you can claim any time until 29 January 2021.    

To apply, or check, you need the following information:

• Self-assessment unique taxpayer reference (UTR) 
• National insurance (NI) 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) 

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