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<p>The Government announced at Budget 2021 that the Self-Employment Income Support
Scheme (SEISS) will continue until September, with a fourth and a final fifth grant.
This provides certainty to business as the economy reopens and means the SEISS continues
to be one of the most generous schemes for the self-employed in the world.</p><p>
</p><p>HMRC work out SEISS eligibility based on information submitted by individuals
on their Self-Assessment tax returns. As the deadline for 2019-20 tax returns has
now passed, HMRC will now use these tax returns for the fourth and fifth grants, provided
they were submitted by 2 March 2021.</p><p> </p><p>This means more than 600,000 people
are brought into scope who either became self-employed in 2019-20, or were ineligible
for previous grants, but now may be eligible for the fourth grant on the basis of
submitting their 2019-20 tax return.</p><p> </p><p>The SEISS provides generous support
to the self-employed, including freelancers who meet the eligibility criteria.</p><p>
</p><p>In addition, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been available
to all employers with a PAYE system and all employees on PAYE regardless of their
employment contract. As such, freelancers and those on short term contracts could
be eligible for the CJRS if they are on PAYE and meet the eligibility criteria. The
furloughing of staff through the CJRS is a voluntary arrangement, entered at the employers’
discretion and agreed by employees.</p><p> </p><p>People who are ineligible for CJRS
and the SEISS may qualify for other elements of the £407bn package of support the
Government has made available.<strong><br> <br> </strong></p>
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