Self-employment Income Support Scheme

Use this scheme if you’re self-employed or a member of a partnership in the UK and have lost income due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

The UK Government has recently updated the guidance as it include, a few points to highlight include:

  • The grant will be subject to Income Tax and National Insurance contributions but does not need to be repaid.
  • You can make a claim for Universal Credit while you wait for the grant, but any grant received will be treated as part of your self-employment income and may affect the amount of Universal Credit you get. Any Universal Credit claims for earlier periods will not be affected.
  • If you receive the grant you can continue to work or take on other employment including voluntary work.
  • If you have other employment as a director or employee which is paid through PAYE your employer may be able to get support using the Job Retention Scheme.
  • You will need to confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected by coronavirus. HMRC will as usual use a risk based approach to compliance.
  • If you’re self-employed and have received payment for work or services in the form of a loan or other form of credit covered by the loan charge, you may be able to claim the grant, however your eligibility and average trading profits will be based on either:
    • the average of the tax years 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018
    • the tax year 2017 to 2018 if you were not self-employed in the tax year 2016 to 2017
  • If you’re a self-employed farmer claiming farmers’ averaging relief HMRC will use the amount of profit before the impact of the averaging claims to work out:
    • if you can claim the grant
    • how much grant you will receive
  • Find out how HMRC works out your total income and trading profits for the Self-employment Income Support Scheme
  • HMRC will aim to contact you by mid May 2020 if you’re eligible for the scheme and invite you to claim using the GOV.UK online service. If you’re unable to claim online an alternative way to claim will be available. We will update this page with more information soon.