6 Months Seiss / 8 Months Furlough

ConnorH1896

Hello, I'm having aome difficulty understanding this. I am a self employed Musician and currently relying on Seiss to get me through until the pubs and clubs are allowed to have live entertainment. Im just wondering why the employed furlough scheme pays from March - October whereas the Seiss pays March - August?
I'd also like to know why the 2nd seiss payment in august will be 70% to "match" furloughs payment when the 2nd seiss is to cover missed income from work during june-august and in that period furloughed employees have received 80%.

If person 1 is furloughed and receives 80% of their income and gets £2500 a month until august when it would drop to £2187.50 a month till october, they would receive £19,062.50 over the duration of furlough, if they were furloughed the full duration.
Whereas person 2 is self employed and claiming seiss and also receives 80% of their income and also gets £2500 per month but until march they only receive £14062.50. 
My math could be wrong and I'm hoping my understanding is wrong. Just hope someone can shine a light on this for me.

Thanks
Connor

Jeremy535897

There's no point in trying to understand the rationale. The head of HMRC couldn't explain it to Martin Lewis. You just have to accept that any help is better than no help.

mobilejo

Jeremy535897 said:

There's no point in trying to understand the rationale. The head of HMRC couldn't explain it to Martin Lewis. You just have to accept that any help is better than no help.

To add to that, you also have to remember that a SEISS claimant can continue trading in the same business that is eligible for the grant, whereas a furloughed employee cannot work for the same employer for time that they are furloughed.

So a SEISS claimant may get less in the grant, but could potentially walk away with much more money - They can continue working full time if the business is out there for them to do so, and still get 6 months of income in the grant.

jimkelly

"The grants don't relate to a specific three-month time period, they are just grants – though based on three months of trading profits."

Source: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/04/self-employed-help-coronavirus/#apply

Jeremy535897

jimkelly said:

"The grants don't relate to a specific three-month time period, they are just grants – though based on three months of trading profits."

Source: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/04/self-employed-help-coronavirus/#apply

HMRC initially commented that the first grant covered March to May, which led to questions about which tax year to account for it, which led to draft legislation saying 2020/21. I bet they wish they had never made the comment.