Chancellor Rishi Sunak is set to announce the latest details for the fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant, in the upcoming Budget on 3rd March 2021. The grant will take into account self-employed worker’s earnings from February to April 2021.
The government has spent £13.7billion on SEISS grants since the pandemic began in March 2020, in an effort to support the self-employed and save businesses. Whilst government support is in place for the self-employed, many did not qualify for the grant as they did not meet the criteria, which includes:
- Less than half of income is from self-employment
- The necessary tax records were not available as they became self-employed too recently
- Their income exceeds the £50,000 limit
The Chancellor has been urged to extend the support to those who have not been eligible for the previous grants. Some are calling for those who are recently self-employed to be included in the latest grant. The latest tax filings could be used as a basis to allow for more people to be eligible for the SEISS grant, as around 300,000 recently self-employed workers have already filed their 2019/20 self-assessment tax return.
