SEISS 4 calculation

Thurrafork

Hello folks
Re the SEISS grants. I was previously ineligible for infuriating reasons.
I'm an actor and all of my work is freelance/zero-hours etc. Unfortunately one of my main semi-regular zero hours voiceover jobs was - despite being as insecure as all my other freelance work - PAYE. And as it made up more than 50% of my profits I was ineligible for SEISS.

However, that voice job stopped being PAYE in April 2019. It became reclassified as self-employment.
So on my 19-20 tax return I was 100% self employed, so finally I was eligible. And I got the grant! Not a huge amount, but I'm grateful for anything.

But I'm just reflecting on the way they calculate things.
I'm sure I remember reading that they would base their calculation solely on the 19-20 tax return, and they would only additionally factor in the previous years returns if the 19-20 one did not in itself indicate eligibility.
I only ask this because, as far as I can tell, my 19-20 return DOES in itself indicate eligibility, and my previous self-employed profits (smaller, due to the voice work not being 'self-employment' at that time) rather drag down my average earnings calculation! My self-employment profits in previous years were only around £4k.
If 19-20 qualifies me for the grant, why even look at the previous years?
I thought one of the headline positives of grant 4 was that the newly self-employed could benefit. They of course might not necessarily have ANY self employed profits in previous years. Would their 10-20 figure be dragged down to an average calculated by the inclusion of previous years?
Am I just a bit unlucky in that I had SOME self-employment in previous years, so they factor that in?
My jobs never actually changed, it was just that one voice job that changed classification from PAYE to self-employed.

I'm very happy to have qualified for the grant at all. I know I am more fortunate than many. But I just want to make sure I'm not missing out.
Of course I could be very mistaken about this and it was always going to be based on a 4 year average.
I'm just not sure!

Thanks

Jeremy535897

This is a common misconception.
Eligibility (in the case of the 50% and £50,000 tests) is tested on profits for 2019/20, but if you are ineligible using 2019/20 alone, it is tested on 2016/17 to 2019/20 (if you've been trading that long).
Quantum is always calculated on 2016/17 to 2019/20 (if you've been trading that long).

Thurrafork

Thanks Jeremy
Yeah, I just saw another post here further down the board querying the same thing.
Dammit!
Oh well, nothing can be done!
Thanks for clearing up the process.