Self-employed workers able to apply for a grant of up to £2,500 a month

[Irial]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52053914

Self-employed workers will be able to apply for a grant of up to £2,500 a month to help them cope with the financial impact of coronavirus, the chancellor has announced.

The money will be paid in a single lump sum, but will not begin to arrive until the start of June at the earliest.

Rishi Sunak told the self-employed: "You have not been forgotten."

Plans for 80% wage subsidies for staff kept on by employers were announced last week.

[Opendraw]

Solo self employed people do often have a rainy day fund but this was tsunami . I expect my taxes will now go up and retirement age will probably be 90 so I feel we are entitled to some help for all this reasons. Gahhhhhh

[Opendraw]

The retune is 2018/19

[RUSU92]

I wondered that too how on earth can you prove you have no work coming in?

You can't and you don't have to. There will be very few people totally unaffected or indeed benefitting from this situation. Trying to police that would add an extra layer of complication to this whole thing. You've got to hope that people who don't need it won't claim, but some will of course. They'd spend more on trying to means test it even further.

Also will they take partners earning into consideration.

Do two working people have to take each other's earnings into account before accepting the £2.5k support too? People arrange their life and finances based on their income. Suddenly losing one of them, whether from self-employment or employment will have an impact, and I'm so glad the government have recognised that.

[Opendraw]

Oh great thanks RUS x

[BarbaraofSeville]

Are we stuffed for any help as his earnings were over the £50k for the last return only

I don't know and I think issues like this are part of why it took them longer to put things in place as it's often not black and white. There's also the potential for people who haven't been SE very long to miss out because they're working on figures at least a year old.

We have a different issue in that in the last few years DP has flitted between employment and self employment in an industry that's been wiped out by coronavirius, festivals and concerts and it's not looking good for the summer as many of the big festivals that are his best earners have been cancelled.

I've just looked through his tax returns for the relevant three years and found that 48% of his total income for those years was from SE and 52% from employment, while for 2019/20 it will be more like 95% SE as he quit a job in mid April 2019 to go back freelance. But this help is for people where the majority of their income is from self employment so on those numbers he just falls short of that.

All we can do is wait, do his tax return for 2019/20 so there's evidence he's now only SE and make an application at the relevant time, hoping that someone actually looks at the figures and there's an element of discretion involved rather than a straightforward 'computer says no' approach.

[minniemooblue]

@gingerbread88
We are the same. Last year £56k but the two years before that were under.
This bit confused me.

[Blakes77]

It seems unfair...DH's income comes about 45% from being freelance and the rest from being employed albeit on a zero hour contract. So he won't qualify for this grant as the majority of his work isn't self-employed, and on the other hand his employed hours have drastically dropped so we're not sure where he'll stand there.

Same for me, except my casual work has stopped completely. I don't earn a lot in total, but piece together a living from self employment and casual work. I am not PAYE anywhere but work casually for the same employer, not different employers. I declare that as employed income on my tax return.
I'm really confused as to what to apply for! 80% of just my SE income will be sod all really. Maybe I would be better applying for UC, but then can I continue to earn anything from self employment??

[DogInATent]

Why does it not include 19/20? Surely that was filed in Jan for most people?
My 2019-20 accounts and tax year hasn't ended yet. How could I file in January? In January 2020 I filed my 2018-19 self-assessment accounts.

[Lostoldusername]

Does anyone know if there is a minimum amount you need to have earnt before you can claim this grant?
I filed my tax return (only 1yr in) self employed ad hoc nanny. Earnt approx £7k so no tax to pay in the same way as someone on PAYE would not pay any. Wondering if I'm eligible?

[Haffiana]

There is no minimum. If you only filed one year (18-19) then they will base it on that, and give you 80% of 7k divided by 12 for each month that the scheme runs.