Self-Employed Income Support Scheme update

Last updated: September 2021.

Details of the fifth round of Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants have now been made available. You can make a claim for the fifth grant if you think that your business profit will be impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19) between 1 May 2021 and 30 September 2021.

Are you eligible?

The online service to claim the fifth grant is now available on the government website. You’re likely to be eligible if:

• You are a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership.
• Your trading profits as reported in your 2019-2020 Self Assessment tax return were no more than £50,000, and at least equal to your non-trading income. (If you’re not eligible based on your 2019-2020 tax return, HMRC will then consider your income over previous tax years.)
• You have traded in both tax years 2019-2020 (and submitted your tax return by 2 March 2021), and 2020-2021.
• You intend to continue to trade in 2021-22, but you reasonably believe there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits between 1/5/21 and 30/9/21 due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus.

The grant will be worked out a little differently this time. If your turnover has fallen by 30% or more, you’ll be able to claim the full grant worth 80% of three months’ average trading profits, capped at £7,500. If your turnover has fallen by less than that, you’ll be able to claim a grant worth 30% of three months’ average trading profits, capped at £2,850.

Help from benefits

Many self-employed people already have their income boosted by benefits like tax credits, housing benefit or Universal Credit. If this is the case, you may be able to claim more money than usual to compensate for your loss of income. Tell the relevant benefits agency what’s happening.

If you’re not claiming benefits already, you may be entitled to make a claim now, either to top up your income or to keep you going until the next round of grants becomes available. You can check your entitlement using this free benefits calculator, and find more information at gov.uk/coronavirus.

If you have lost income but you’re not entitled to any of the support above

• If you’ve been made redundant, take a look at our redundancy guide.
• If you’re one of our customers on a Debt Management Plan, IVA, Trust Deed or DAS, let us know as soon as your financial situation changes, so we can make sure you’re not paying more than you can afford into your debt solution. You can find details on how to contact us on our website.