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<p>The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has supported 2.9 million people,
paying over £25bn across all four SEISS grants. Together, the five SEISS grants combined
will have provided individual claimants with support up to £36,570, making it one
of the most generous self-employment income COVID support schemes in the world.</p><p>
</p><p>Company directors are not self-employed and so cannot qualify for the SEISS.
They have access to the CJRS if they are paid a salary through PAYE and if they meet
the eligibility criteria. Those paid annually have been and are still eligible to
claim, as long as they meet the relevant conditions including being notified to HMRC
on an RTI submission within the relevant cut-off dates.</p><p>In designing the SEISS,
the Government’s priority was to get support to the greatest number of people but
in a way that guards against fraud and abuse. That meant designing a system where
HMRC can automatically match the data people provide in their applications with information
already in the system to verify and pay out the claim.</p><p> </p><p>The Government
has explored a range of options and proposals to support company directors who pay
themselves through dividends. However, HMRC do not have data – as it is not needed
to administer the tax system – to identify them or verify how much grant they should
be awarded. This would rely solely on self-certification and would thus open any scheme
up to unacceptable levels of fraud and error by organised criminals and others who
would seek to exploit these schemes.</p>
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