Self-employment income support scheme extension

The self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) has provided support to many self-employed individuals since it was first launched at the start of the Covid-19 crisis in March 2020. At 31 December 2020 more than 6.8 million such grants had been claimed totalling £18.9bn of support. However the SEISS eligibility criteria mean that not everyone who is self-employed has been able to qualify for a grant and there have been repeated calls for more to be done to plug the gaps in the scheme.

It has now been confirmed that details of the fourth SEISS grant will be announced at the Budget on 3 March. Let’s review the main gaps in the scheme that the chancellor could look to bridge in that announcement.

The newly self-employed

To date all SEISS grants have required individuals to have traded in the tax year 2018-19 so anyone who...