Should I claim SEISS Grant?

TF1

The crisis has been an odd situation for me, I teach privately and of course I was forced to move my entire teaching practice on-line.
At first I lost 6 customers but then some existing customers booked extra classes as they were stuck at home bored, so to date compared to last year
I'm £3K up on earnings.
However I've been borrowing a laptop, web camera and mic and now I need to buy a new laptop, web camera and mic and that will cost about £2K.
I had a couple of webchat's with HMRC and got to completely conflicting sets of advice!
One advisor told me I had been adversely affected because I need to buy expensive equipment to work on-line that I wouldn't usually needed to buy.
The next advisor said, as my income is up on last year I'm not entitled to make a claim for SEISS.

I just don't know what to do, I don't want to be possibly the 1 person who didn't claim SEISS,
but equally I don't want to get into trouble for erroneously making a claim (though I have a print out of the webchat advice to put a claim in due to buying equipment)
Finally, if any of my current customers decide to drop back to just one class a week, then those lost 6 clients will have an impact on my income, also I had plans to rum a little summer school this summer but that's on hold now, though I don't think SEISS was aimed to cover what I might of earned looking forward to the summer, just March, April, May so far.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

whizzywoo

You have been adversely affected.  The extra lessons may drop off when people are no longer in lock down as much and so they won't be bored.  Your Summer School plans will probably not go ahead.  You have had to pay out for expensive equipment.

There is no requirement for you to make less profits in this tax year than the previous one.  I would definitely claim.

Grumpy_chap

Yes, you have been adversely affected so claim both the first and second SEISS grant.

sharpe106

You have a copy of the webchat that said you should claim it, so claim it what worst they can you were wrong?

justwhat

Claim it !!! you have been adversely effected. The grant is not just about profit/turn over.

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TF1

Thank you for your replies.
I can see my understanding of what adversely effected means hasn't been completely correct.

It would be more straight forward if I could just put in a claim for the amount I'm going to be out of pocket (buying equipment for online teaching) but the claim process is all or nothing and I guess that has me worried that I'm going to end up when adding in SEISS (and possibly the SEISS ext.) a considerably higher turnover this year than last year and find myself having to explain why I claimed the grant, though some of the replies here address that concern.

whizzywoo

TF1 said:

Thank you for your replies.
I can see my understanding of what adversely effected means hasn't been completely correct.

It would be more straight forward if I could just put in a claim for the amount I'm going to be out of pocket (buying equipment for online teaching) but the claim process is all or nothing and I guess that has me worried that I'm going to end up when adding in SEISS (and possibly the SEISS ext.) a considerably higher turnover this year than last year and find myself having to explain why I claimed the grant, though some of the replies here address that concern.

You have no idea what will happen over the next few months.  You may, but hopefully not, catch the virus and be too ill to work.  Your clients may be ill and cancel their lessons.

The grants will enable you to build up some resistance to further economic adversity caused by the virus so that you will still have a viable business when things get back on a more normal footing. 

TF1

whizzywoo said:

TF1 said:

Thank you for your replies.
I can see my understanding of what adversely effected means hasn't been completely correct.

It would be more straight forward if I could just put in a claim for the amount I'm going to be out of pocket (buying equipment for online teaching) but the claim process is all or nothing and I guess that has me worried that I'm going to end up when adding in SEISS (and possibly the SEISS ext.) a considerably higher turnover this year than last year and find myself having to explain why I claimed the grant, though some of the replies here address that concern.

You have no idea what will happen over the next few months.  You may, but hopefully not, catch the virus and be too ill to work.  Your clients may be ill and cancel their lessons.

The grants will enable you to build up some resistance to further economic adversity caused by the virus so that you will still have a viable business when things get back on a more normal footing. 

Yes, that's my concern summed up perfectly, I'm am worried about the near future and I do feel vulnerable because I'm not getting any new inquiries at all for lessons as I normally would each month, I'm relying on the goodwill of my current customers.

I must say, I hadn't realised the SEISS grants could be viewed in the way you describe, I had formed the impression it was literally only to cover lost income compared to last year and nothing more.

The grant would make a huge difference to me to cover the cost of buying the equipment I need to buy for on-line teaching.

Thanks you again for your feedback and thoughts.

Jeremy535897

Guidance says:

"Your business could be adversely affected by coronavirus if, for example:

• you’re unable to work because you:
  • are shielding
  • are self-isolating
  • are on sick leave because of coronavirus
  • have caring responsibilities because of coronavirus
• you’ve had to scale down or temporarily stop trading because:
• your supply chain has been interrupted
• you have fewer or no customers or clients
• your staff are unable to come in to work"

It's very wide. It is already accepted that some self employed will be better off as a result of the grant than they would have been if the coronavirus pandemic didn't exist.

calcotti

My opinion is that in this case OP has not been adversely affected.

Jeremy535897

calcotti said:

My opinion is that in this case OP has not been adversely affected.

I think being forced to move online, buy extra equipment and losing six clients would count as adversely affected. I don't think you have to show that overall your business has been adversely affected, just in some way.