Newly self employed

sharpe106

Unfortunately the same with every scheme, some people get left behind and others will be laughing all the way to the bank. Although they had a lot of time to make the scheme more fair. But choose not to. 

poppy12345

Rosskie said:

And as far as I understand it, will continue to get UC and another grant!  70%/80% of their wage?  Try 100%+ 

When claiming UC the SEISS is classed as income in the month it's received and will reduce their UC by 63% if they don't have a work allowance.

Rhiannie

I became self employed in 2018 but am not eligible for SEIS despite working all my adult life. I'm looking for people in similar circumstances (in the apparently 5% falling through the net)  to contact your MPs. I was advised to do this by HMRC - not holding my breath but we need to try to highlight this unfair system. 

Rhiannie

Just to add to previous entry, there is a petition you can sign and share on change.org. 

sharpe106

I doubt they are going to change it, as they are trying to reduce the payments not increase them. 

Rhiannie

Please contact your MP's and sign the petitions, I've worked all my adult life and set up self employed in October 18 - not eligible either. I see the Scottish government has a self employed hardship fund for people falling through this unfair net but we have sod all! 

Jeremy535897

Rhiannie said:

Please contact your MP's and sign the petitions, I've worked all my adult life and set up self employed in October 18 - not eligible either. I see the Scottish government has a self employed hardship fund for people falling through this unfair net but we have sod all! 

If you can actually find anyone who qualified for the £2,000 hardship fund in Scotland, I'll be impressed. Here are the conditions:

• you became self-employed on/after 6 April 2019 (did not submit a tax return including income from self-employment for 2018-19)
• over 50% of your individual income is from self-employment
• your trading profits were below £50,000 in financial year 2019-20
• you have lost business due to coronavirus and are suffering financial hardship as a result
• you are ineligible for other COVID-19 related business support (including the Business Interruption Loan Schemes, Corporate Finance Fund, Job Retention Schemes, Future Fund, R&D Focussed SMEs Fund, HMRC Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, Non-Domestic Rates relief, Small Business Grant or other business support)
• you do not receive working age benefit payments (Universal Credit, Statutory Sick Pay, Employment and Support Allowance, Job Seekers’ Allowance, Income Support) or have applied for but not yet started receiving Universal Credit or an advanced payment of Universal Credit
• you trade as self-employed, not as a limited company. If in a partnership, you are self-employed for pay and tax purposes
• you have taken steps to limit costs and expenditure (including through schemes such as VAT deferral and seeking a mortgage payment holiday)
• you do not have access to sufficient savings or other sources of income to meet basic needs

So you can apply if you had £49,999 profits in your first year of trading, but you had insufficient income or savings to meet "basic needs".

Rhiannie

We don't actually have a hardship grant in England but it sounds like it wouldn't be much help at all! I urge everyone to write to MP's and sign the petitions - the parliamentary one is 310471 spread the word!