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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.
The fourth SEISS grant, available to claim from late April, will be worth 80% of average
trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering three months’ worth of annual
profits, and capped at £7,500 in total. Further details of the fifth SEISS grant will
be published in due course.</p><p> </p><p>Grants are now based on 2019-20 tax returns which
is the most up to date information HMRC holds for self-employed individuals. This means
that the Government is now in a position to provide support to hundreds of thousands
of newly eligible self-employed individuals.</p><p>Using these returns requires time
to deliver, due to the increased population and new data. Guidance on how to claim
the fourth grant will be available in due course.</p><p> </p><p>The SEISS and the
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) are very different schemes. The CJRS pays
for hours which are not worked, while SEISS claimants can work while claiming. Furthermore,
as the Chancellor announced, employers will be required to contribute to CJRS payments
as the economy reopens. The SEISS is not intended to provide a month-by-month replacement
of income. Due to the volatility of self-employed income and the lack of granular
data that HMRC hold on self-employed trading profits, precise mapping of income replacement
month by month is not possible. Instead, the SEISS provides a lump sum payment to
support eligible self-employed individuals whose businesses have been affected by
coronavirus.</p><p> </p><p>The SEISS is just one part of a wider package of support
for the self-employed. The temporary £20 per week increase to the Universal Credit
standard allowance has been extended for six months, and the suspension of the Minimum
Income Floor for three months, to the end of July 2021, so that where self-employed
claimants' earnings have fallen significantly, their Universal Credit award will have
increased to reflect their lower earnings. In addition, they may also have access
to other elements of the package, including Restart Grants, the Recovery Loan scheme,
business rates relief, and other business support schemes.</p>
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