SEISS 5th grant alert

37eeyore

My son is a self employed swimming instructor who only became self employed in September 2019. He couldn't work for most of 2020/21 tax year because swimming pools were the first thing to shut and the last thing to re-open. He claimed the 4th grant without any issues but when he went to claim the 5th one he got the following message.

You cannot make this claim
Your claim has triggered an alert.
We take your security and protection from scams very seriously.
Please refer to the email or letter we have sent you about your claim.

That was nearly two weeks ago and he hasn't received a text or a letter. There doesn't seem to be any info on what to do next or who to contact. Has anyone else had this problem and know what he should do?

MattMattMattUK

37eeyore said:

My son is a self employed swimming instructor who only became self employed in September 2019. He couldn't work for most of 2020/21 tax year because swimming pools were the first thing to shut and the last thing to re-open. He claimed the 4th grant without any issues but when he went to claim the 5th one he got the following message.

You cannot make this claim
Your claim has triggered an alert.
We take your security and protection from scams very seriously.
Please refer to the email or letter we have sent you about your claim.

That was nearly two weeks ago and he hasn't received a text or a letter. There doesn't seem to be any info on what to do next or who to contact. Has anyone else had this problem and know what he should do?

The only people who can answer are HMRC, get him to call them. The best option will be to ring them, although it might involve a considerable wait in the queue.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/coronavirus-covid-19-helpline

Did he submit a self-assessment tax return for 20/21 and did he meet the qualifying criteria for SEISS 4? Has he double checked everything from the 20/21 return and the previous claim was correct?  Did he claim from a shared computer, or have someone else make the claim on his behalf (eg. an accountant)? Was the previous grant paid into his personal bank account? 

37eeyore

He did submit a self assessment tax return for 20/21 and had no issues claiming SEISS 4. It was paid directly to his bank account and all appears to have been correct. Because he was new to self assessment I helped him do his tax return and make the claim but he was with me and answered the questions.
Looks like we'll have to ring them to find out what the problem is.

Jeremy535897

2020/21 tax returns don't have to be submitted until 31 January 2022, and their only relevance to SEISS claims is to prove that trading continued in 2020/21. The relevant tax return is 2019/20, which must have been submitted by 2 March 2021 to claim SEISS 4 and/or SEISS 5.

Is he sure he received no letter from HMRC? Did he have to complete the security checks that many new traders were asked to do before claiming SEISS 4? 

37eeyore

He didn't have to complete any checks for SEISS 4. Maybe that's why they're checking him now. If that's all it is, how long will it take them to contact him? Would the message have been different? It sounded more like they were warning him that someone was scamming his account.

Jeremy535897

The best thing is for him to contact HMRC.