Jury Service for a Self Employed person who has received SEISS.

Tibbastun

Hello I’m new to the forum and wanted to ask a question. I am a self-employed person carrying out Jury Service this week and thought I could claim the daily lost earnings amount paid out by HMCT service. When I handed in my claims form I was asked by the clerk if I was in receipt of SEISS to which I replied yes, as I am currently shut due to the Covid restrictions. The clerk then said I am unable to claim for the daily loss of earnings, what a Juror normally receives, as the Government has paid me. I thought I would be entitled to claim the daily amount, or am I wrong. Has anyone else experienced this?

gary83

you can’t really argue with their logic, you have no loss of earnings to be compensated for? Are you actually suffering a loss due to the jury service? Or are they just not paying out twice like you hoped?

Tibbastun

No I’m not suffering a financial loss, just a loss of time by attending court. As I’m at court each day I’m unable to carry out the limited amount of work that I would normally do, speak to clients, send texts emails etc. I’m not sure if employed people on furlough can receive the daily allowance? 

Retiredwelshman

Tibbastun said:

No I’m not suffering a financial loss, just a loss of time by attending court. As I’m at court each day I’m unable to carry out the limited amount of work that I would normally do, speak to clients, send texts emails etc. I’m not sure if employed people on furlough can receive the daily allowance? 

We all suffer a time loss when called for jury service. It is a price well paying for our democracy.
Here in Wales it was ok to bring in your laptop for personal use.

Grumpy_chap

The attached states that an employer can claim CJRS for an employee who is called to jury service while on furlough:
https://www.icaew.com/insights/tax-news/2020/sep-2020/cjrs-claims-can-be-made-for-furloughed-staff-on-jury-service
Importantly, it does not state that an employer can furlough an employee to go on jury service, only that the employee can be on jury service while furloughed.
The article also covers the employer's position, not the employee.

The following guide says you can only claim for loss of earnings plus certain expenses:
https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim-if-youre-self-employed
The OP does not seem to have any loss of earnings by being on jury service.

Jeremy535897

The claim for self employed loss of earnings includes:
"I certify that I normally earn £ (gross) per day and that I have lost/will lose that amount each day."
If you are shut, you aren't earning anything, except SEISS 3, which you are paid whether on jury service or not.

calcotti

Jeremy535897 said:

The claim for self employed loss of earnings includes:
"I certify that I normally earn £ (gross) per day and that I have lost/will lose that amount each day."
If you are shut, you aren't earning anything, except SEISS 3, which you are paid whether on jury service or not.

In this case OP has said they are shut so I agree with you. However raises the interesting question about the situation for someone still carrying out reduced trade and who has claimed SEISS. In that case it’s not logical that claiming SEISS should exclude them from claiming loss of earnings.

Tibbastun

That wascalcotti said:

Jeremy535897 said:

The claim for self employed loss of earnings includes:
"I certify that I normally earn £ (gross) per day and that I have lost/will lose that amount each day."
If you are shut, you aren't earning anything, except SEISS 3, which you are paid whether on jury service or not.

In this case OP has said they are shut so I agree with you. However raises the interesting question about the situation for someone still carrying out reduced trade and who has claimed SEISS. In that case it’s not logical that claiming SEISS should exclude them from claiming loss of earnings.

This was my thought. It seems unfair that a carpenter for instance can claim SEISS, continuing to work but at a reduced capacity and be allowed to claim loss of earnings as a self employed juror but a completely closed hairdresser in receipt of SEISS cannot claim. Would this case be won in court!

Jeremy535897

calcotti said:

Jeremy535897 said:

The claim for self employed loss of earnings includes:
"I certify that I normally earn £ (gross) per day and that I have lost/will lose that amount each day."
If you are shut, you aren't earning anything, except SEISS 3, which you are paid whether on jury service or not.

In this case OP has said they are shut so I agree with you. However raises the interesting question about the situation for someone still carrying out reduced trade and who has claimed SEISS. In that case it’s not logical that claiming SEISS should exclude them from claiming loss of earnings.

The form for claiming allows a claimant to use 2019/20 figures to calculate the income lost, averaging profits on a daily basis, so they need to do some serious updating, because that is quite unlikely to be representative of this year's profits. The statement is odd: arguably if you "normally" earn £200 a day but coronavirus means you only earn £150 (even with SEISS), how can you claim anything?