The second round of the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) opened for applications on Monday 17^th August. The second and final grant covers the quarter to 31 August 2020. The second grant will provide up to £6,570 for the quarter (£2,190 per month) paid in a single instalment. These figures are based on 70% of eligible earnings (previous quarter 80%). Claims for the first grant have now been closed.

The following are some of the most important eligibility criteria for the scheme:

• The applicant must have been adversely affected by coronavirus on or after 14 July 2020.
• Applicants must be self-employed or a member of a trading partnership, voluntary work, or duties as an armed forces reservist.
• Have filed a tax return for 2018-19.
• Have traded in 2019-20; be currently trading at the point of application (or would be except for COVID-19) and intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020-21,
• Have trading profits of less than £50,000 and more than half of total income from self-employment.
• Individuals can continue to work, start a new trade or take on other employment including voluntary work, or duties as an armed forces reservist.

It is possible for a qualifying self-employed person to qualify and claim for the second grant even if they had not claimed / qualified for the first grant.

If you are eligible, you should have been contacted by HMRC via letter, text or email and given a date on which to make your claim. Those who are eligible to use the scheme will have been given a randomly allocated date when they can apply for their grant. Whilst you cannot apply before the allocated day, there is no issue submitting a claim after that day. The application process will close on 19 October 2020. Claims are expected to be paid within six working days of submission of a claim.

Over 2.7 million benefited from the first stage of the SEISS – with the government handing out £7.8 billion of grants to help them through the crisis.

More than 3 million people are thought to be eligible for the second grant although some self-employed workers have fallen through the cracks such as the newly self-employed and some freelance workers who have been unable to claim. There are concerns for many self-employed workers when the scheme comes to an end, especially if we see a second wave of the pandemic.