From today, self employed individuals can apply for the second SEISS grant. The grant, which aims to help those whose earnings have been negatively impacted by Covid-19, is worth up to £6,570. 

In this article, we’ll give you the rundown on this new grant - how it compares to the first grant, how you know if you're eligible and how you can claim it. 

What’s the difference between the first grant and the second grant?

The second grant follows on from the first grant offered to self employed individuals at the beginning of the pandemic. The first grant was a three month grant which was intended to help people cover their loss in earnings in the months of March, April and May and was available to applicants until July 13th.

The purpose behind the second grant is to give self employed workers additional financial support in case they start to struggle later on in the year. For example, where a freelancer might be operating okay in August but begins to struggle in September, they may still be able to apply for the grant at that time. 

As part of the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS), the government will cover up to 70 percent (70%) of your trading profits over three months with the second grant. This grant is capped at £2,190 a month, which means the most you’re allowed to claim all together is £6,570. The first grant, in comparison, paid a larger 80 percent of earnings, with the total paid capped at a higher £7,500.

How do you know if you're eligible for the new grant?

Firstly, you’ll have to prove that your income was negatively affected by the pandemic on or after July 14th, 2020. How you go about proving this remains unclear as the messaging from the Government on this has been muddy. You must have also filed a tax return for 2018/2019. In other words, you must have been self-employed before April 6th, 2019.

It’s important to note that the grants are calculated based on an average of your profits over three tax years – 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19. If you didn’t trade in 2016/17, then it will be based on your average profits in 2017/18 and 2018/19, or in 2018/19 if that’s the only year you traded.

What else? 

To qualify for the grant, you must also earn more than half of your total income from self-employment and your trading profit must be less than £50,000 a year.

Self-employed workers who are company directors or run their businesses as limited companies are not eligible to apply. However, if you claim maternity allowance this will not affect your eligibility for the grant.

How can you claim?

Self employed workers have until October 19, 2020 to apply for the second SEISS grant.

 If you believe you’re eligible, you can make your claim here.

There are a few things you’ll need to have sorted in order to make a claim:

• UK bank details (only provide bank account details where a Bacs payment can be accepted)

• Government Gateway user ID and password – if you don’t have a user ID, you can create one when you make your claim

• National insurance number – if you don’t have this find out how to get your lost national insurance number

• Self-assessment unique taxpayer reference (UTR) – if you don’t have this find out how to get your lost UTR

While you can be eligible for the second grant regardless of whether or not you claimed the first payment, there are concerns that certain businesses will be unable to attain the second grant if they are unable to show that their work has been adversely affected after mid-July, even if they’re already finding things difficult.

I hope the information in this article has helped you understand what the second SEISS grant entails. The pandemic has taken its toll on the self employed across the UK. Therefore, if you’re a freelancer in need of additional financial support, it’s definitely worth checking out your eligibility for this second grant.