At Charter Tax, we know that a number of our clients have claimed both the first and the second Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant from the Government.
The SEISS was announced on 26 March 2020 as part of the UK government’s support package for businesses and self-employed people during the coronavirus outbreak. The scheme was open to self-employed individuals and members of a partnership who met the following criteria:
- Traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted their Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
- Traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
- Intended to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
- Carried on a trade which had been adversely affected by coronavirus
From Monday 17 August 2020, self-employed people could claim the second SEISS grant and, between that date and 31 August, HMRC received 2 million claims from a total potentially eligible population of 3.4 million. These claims totalled £5.1 billion with an average award of £2,500 per claimant.
Of 5 million individuals who were assessed for potential eligibility, men make up around two-thirds (65%) and also make up a slightly higher proportion (68%) of the potentially eligible population. By 31 August HMRC had received 1,437,000 claims from men totalling £3.9 billion compared with 580,000 claims from women for £1.2 billion.
Males have a higher take-up rate than females (62% compared to 54%) and their average grant value (£2,700) is 35% higher than the average for females (£2,000).
The construction industry has the largest population of individuals who were assessed for potential eligibility with over 1.2 million and over 1 million of these were potentially eligible to apply. By 31 August construction workers had made 693,000 claims for SEISS totalling £2.1 billion; an average of £3,100 per claimant.
The two regions with the highest number of claims are London (498,000) and the South East (379,000), reflecting their relative sizes.
In his Winter Economy Plan, the Chancellor announced plans to extend the SEISS by providing up to two further taxable grants. Find out more here: https://www.charter-tax.com/winter-economy-plan-announced-by-the-chancellor/
