To take the grant for self employed people?

[Curlywurly75]

I'm self employed part time and don't earn a huge amount. My earnings were affected a little the past couple of months due to the virus but by a few hundred rather than thousands.

The grant is based on average earnings over the past three years. I earned a lot more in 16/17 and 17/18 than I did in the last tax year. So, by my reckoning, my grant could be around £3-4k which is quite a lot more than I've actually lost out on. So I feel almost a bit dishonest about accepting it. But at the same time, I don't know how my earnings could be affected in the next few months.

Would you take the grant or not?

@LaurieMarlow when you say "you may be asked to pay it back" - where have you got that from? (Not quizzing you - genuine question!)

If you have been told you are eligible by hmrc then you are eligible

Take it

I've taken it. For me, business has picked up (a bit) during May, but COVID sent my business plummeting to the ground during Feb, March and April. I think I earned about £300 over the period and it was absolutely because of client uncertainty and their focus being on getting their staff into positions where they could work from home, rather than on progressing projects with me. So I feel taking it is justified. In any case, HMRC will be able to see how your business fares in future, and will be able to take any action they want to, if they feel that you didn't need the money after all.

I’m in the same boat as you. I’ve worked though the pandemic and only been slightly effected eg not been able to take on new clients, slightly less work and dd’s been off school.
I’ve read though the gov website and I’m not sure I can prove refusal of new clients (via phone) because of COVID19, my dd’s are teenagers so don’t technically need me at home and I’ve only lost a couple hundred over the 3 months.

I’ve decided not to claim. I don’t feel I’d be able to show evidence should I be investigated. I spoke to a friend who was investigated and he went though hell with hmrc for 18 months and he’d been honest in his returns etc. I’m not sure at this time I could honestly say I’d been “adversely effected” so for now I’m not claiming the grant. If things change or I loose current income I will.
My tax will probably increase next year like everyone else’s and that feels a bit crap tbh but today I can’t take money I don’t whole hearted feel I’m entitled too.

That all been said I wouldn’t judge someone else who did. It’s such a hard call with not knowing what’s round the corner.

when you say "you may be asked to pay it back"

It was on the claim form, there also mention of penalties if it proved to be fraudulent.

@Curlywurly75

This is the text when you go in to claim:

*After you claim
HMRC will check your claim and may withhold or recover payment if your claim:

is not made in accordance with HMRC’s published guidance
contains or is based on inaccurate information
is paid in error
is fraudulent or abusive or not made for the purpose described above*

Yes, dh has taken it. We are doing fine financially and only a bit of a downturn in his business, but this will be a long game. There is no guarantee what the next few months will hold (his work is connected to the restaurant industry, which obviously has been seriously affected, thankfully he has private clients as well). The grant will allow him to make some improvements to his business premises and to start to develop a further income generating project. He pays a lot in taxes, certainly more than the grant, each year, and it means he'll be in the best possible position when all the dust settles.

If things change or I loose current income I will

This is likely to be a one time offer. You won't get the chance again.

I work for one main client. No set hours, he just gives me work every month and I do as much as I can. My only "proof" would be that in Jan and Feb I earned around 800 then 700. In march, client emailed to say he would have to limit my hours that month and I earned 350. I earned 350 again in April although it looks like things might pick up a little bit. So I potentially lost about 800 so far.

Well, if the email stated that the reduction in hours was down to the pandemic then that is your proof. If it didn’t, and you have assumed that is the reason, then you would have to explain why you made that assumption in the event of a compliance check. The general test for tax compliance is does it seem reasonable. If it was a reasonable assumption to make then that’s fine.

It sounds like you're worrying about nothing OP. You've obviously seen a downturn in your work. So unless there's an obvious reason why this is unconnected to the pandemic, you have your proof, in the very unlikely event that you are investigated.

When designing the scheme, they must know that some people will get more money than they've lost, but seeing as they're really not interested in helping the people who've fallen through the cracks, other than telling them to apply for universal credit that many won't be eligible for either and even if they are, it won't go anywhere replacing lost income, they shouldn't be losing any sleep about the people who've managed to come out ahead for once.

Plus obviously you don't know how your income could be affected going forward. As yet, they haven't extended the self employed help beyond 3 months, and some sectors are going to be completely closed long beyond that.

Weve taken it, we had income during April/May but thats from works carried out Jan/Feb, the knock on for us will come over the next few weeks. Aprils figures dont look great we had some emergency jobs which were completed and invoiced but the CRM has a massive quantity of jobs now sat on hold.

I wasn’t going to. I have been losing clients steadily since January (many of mine are US-based where they went into lockdown much earlier). So I sat down and added it up. It was a lot more than I originally thought.

Over the past 3 weeks, they have been dropping like flies. Having had specific confirmation that it’s Covid related, I have claimed. I just consider myself lucky this massive slump happened now, as I might not have claimed. I would have been in a big mess. I still will be to some extent.

OP, bear in mind that self employed NI contributions and income tax will go up to offset this. You will get no credit for not claiming.