HMRC have been in touch with the self employed who are eligible to claim the second Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant.

The scheme went live on 17 August and you should have been given a date that you can make the claim. You can claim any time between now and the 19 October 2020.

The eligibility criteria for the second grant is exactly the same as the first grant – so self-employed people who were eligible for the first SEISS grant will be eligible for the second grant, so long as their business has been adversely affected since 14 July 2020. This typically means that their business has experienced lower income and / or higher costs because of coronavirus (COVID-19) since 14 July.

There is no minimum threshold over which a business’s income, costs or activity need to have changed by, but you will be asked to keep appropriate records as evidence of how the business has been adversely affected.

The second taxable grant is worth 70% of average monthly trading profits, a reduction from the 80% available under the first grant. This will be paid out in a single instalment and will be based on three months’ worth of trading profits and capped at a maximum of £6,570.