HMRC has signalled the launch of the self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) set up by the government to help people whose businesses are affected by COVID-19, but is not yet accepting actual claims.

In the region of 3.5 million self-employed workers in the UK have been contacted by HMRC via email with details of how they can go about applying for the help, ahead of the scheme opening, which is scheduled for this coming week.

It is expected that the service will start taking claims for SEISS this Wednesday, May 13 and that people making a claim will receive the money within six days, or by May 25 at the latest.

The first step to take for self-employed contractors or those running their own small businesses is to use the gov.uk online checker, to find out whether they are entitled to SEISS or not. The scheme has been set up purely for this crisis period and will provide eligible people with grants that cover 80% of their business profits – averaged from their tax returns.

To be entitled to apply for it, a minimum of 50% of their total income must be from their self-employment, their profits from this must not be above £50,000 a year, and they must have submitted a self-employed tax return for the 2018 to 2019 financial year. Accountancy firms that handle tax return services in South Yorkshire or any other part of the country will be of use to anyone who needs more help finding out about SEISS.

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/self-employment-support/enter-unique-taxpayer-reference