Self-Employment Income Support Scheme – applications for 4th grant now open

2 mins read

Tuesday 27 April 2021

People whose self-employment remains affected by Covid-19 are now being invited to apply for the fourth grant under the government’s Self Employment Income Support scheme (SEISS).

This fourth grant covers the months February, March and April and will meet 80% of average profits, capped at £7,500.

However, for the first time the scheme has been opened up to those who started self-employment in 2019/20.  It’s estimated that an extra 600,000 self-employed people will become eligible for the latest grants.

Applications opened on the 22 April but are being staggered to help HMRC cope with demand. If you are eligible, HMRC should have contacted by mid-April to give you your own specific claim date – this is the earliest date from which you can make an on-line claim via the gov.uk site. A claim must be made on or before 1 June 2021. If you haven’t received an email, text or letter from HMRC by the end of April, confirming your claim date contact HMRC.

To be eligible for the fourth grant, all of the following must apply:

• Your business must have had a reduced ‘activity, capacity or demand’ in the period Feb-April. This must be likely to cause a significant reduction in profits during your tax year compared to what you would have otherwise expected.    
• You must be in self-employment and have a tax return for 2019/20.
• You must have traded in both tax years 2019/20 and 2020/21 AND intend to continue to trade. 
• You must have a trading profit of under £50,000.
• The majority of your income needs to be from self-employment.

If you meet these rules you can apply for a grant – it makes no difference whether you got one of the earlier grants under this scheme.

Because this is a grant you don’t have to pay it back, but it will be taken into account as self-employed income for benefits purposes.  

For more information on the SEISS, see our webpage on Coronavirus and Welfare Benefits