We were told that the second SEISS grant (SEISS-2) would be the final grant. But the Chancellor has announced the provision of two more SEISS grants to help support the self-employed over the six months from November 2020 to April 2021.
The third grant: SEISS-3, will be calculated at 20% of average monthly profits, based on the same profit figures used for the earlier grants, ie the self-employed profits reported on tax returns for 2016/17 to 2018/19.
However, there are some further conditions for the SEISS-3 grant:
- The trader must be were eligible for the previous SEISS grants;
- The trader must be actively trading when claiming the SEISS-3 grant; and
- Business sales must have been reduced due to the covid-19 pandemic in the period from 1 November 2020 to the date of the claim.
The SEISS-3 grant will be capped at £1,875 for three months, working out at just £625 per month.
A fourth grant: SEISS-4 will be payable for the period February to April 2021. We don’t know how much that grant will be or what the cap will be. The qualifying conditions for the SEISS-4 grant are likely to be similar to those for the SEISS-3 grant.
The profits used as the basis for the SEISS-4 grant will also be the average annual profits derived from tax returns for 2016/17 to 2018/19.