Self-employment Income Support Scheme
What is it?
The Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will support self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. The scheme will provide a grant to self-employed individuals or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month.
HMRC will use the average profits from tax returns in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 to calculate the size of the grant. The scheme will be open to those where the majority of their income comes from self-employment and who have profits of less than £50,000. If you’re eligible and want to claim the first grant you must make your claim on or before 13 July 2020. You’ll be able to make a claim for a second and final grant in August 2020. Find out more about the extension to the scheme.
Am I eligible?
The scheme is now open and you can check whether you are eligible here.
Get other financial support
You can make a claim for Universal Credit while you wait for the grant. The grant may affect the amount of Universal Credit you get, but will not affect claims for earlier periods.
The government is also providing the following help for the self-employed:
- deferral of Self Assessment Income Tax and VAT payments
- grants for businesses that pay little or no business rates
- Business Interruption Loan Scheme
- Bounce Back Loan
If you have other employment as a director or employee paid through PAYE your employer may be able to get support using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Get help online
You can watch videos and register for free webinars to learn more about the support available to help you deal with the economic impacts of coronavirus.
Use HMRC’s digital assistant to find more information about the coronavirus support schemes.
