Up to Date Information on Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (“SEISS”)

UK businesses have been facing very difficult and extraordinary circumstances as a result of the pandemic. As part of the Government’s response to the crisis, it introduced a number of measures designed to assist commercial and other enterprises, including a financial support scheme aimed at helping the self-employed called the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (“SEISS”).

HMRC began to accept claims under the scheme from 13 May 2020, initially covering the period 1 March-31 May 2020. The SEISS was subsequently extended to cover the periods 1 June-31 August 2020, 1 November 2020-31 January 2021 and 1 February 2021-30 April 2021.

The dates for claiming in respect of the periods up to 31 January 2021 have all now passed, but it is possible to claim for the period 1 February 2021-30 April 2021 from late April 2021 until 31 May 2021.

The Government has recently announced that SEISS will be extended further, to cover the period 1 May-30 September 2021 and the SEISS information pages have been updated accordingly. These pages explain various aspects of SEISS, including its nature, criteria for eligibility, guidance on calculating the amount of entitlement and how to make a claim.

Although various eligibility requirements prescribed by SEISS exclude many self-employed people from being able to make any claim (as well as any small owner-managed (“one man”) business operating as a company), there are a range of other Government schemes under which businesses can or have been able to benefit instead, further details are available in these information pages.

Whilst some of these have now ended, the Government is making available new schemes to help business. These include the Covid-19 Restart Grant, details of which you can find on HMG’s website, and the Covid-19 Recovery Loan scheme, details of which you can also find on HMG’s website.