Self employment grant

[Bettie2192]

My husband is self employed but works for someone else’s business, they pay his wages etc. We want to apply for the SEISS as everyone keeps telling him to but we are both a bit wary as we are very honest people and worry it would be cheating. Coronavirus hasn’t affected his work too much however they have had a lot of big jobs in the summer cancelled or delayed, and where he’d normally work 6 days a week he’s only been working 5 due to less work so that is a whole days pay he is losing per week. Does it sound like he should apply? We know other self employed people who have done it and they say that everyone else they know has applied for the grant even though they’ve all still been working (all similar positions to my husband- self employed but working for other people’s businesses or through agencies). Anyone else been in a similar position?

How can you be self employed but someone else pay your wages - surely that makes him employed??

Do you mean he is he self employed but only works for one company and really should be an employee?

Either he’s self-employed or he’s not. He can’t be if he only works for one company.

Yes he is self employed but exclusively works for one company. He doesn’t have to, there’s no contract. He’s perfectly entitled to work wherever he wants, but he chooses to work with them. They pay him for his work and sort the taxes, then he does his tax return at the end of the year.

I would say that you might not need it now, but none of us knows how this might effect job prospects going forward. So I'd apply for it and then shove it in a bank account and forget about if you really don't need it. It might just give you the back up you need longer term.