The Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will be extended to include some new parents and army reservists, it has been announced.
The changes to the eligibility criteria follow similar adjustments made to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) earlier this month.
However, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) warned that the changes were likely to be “very limited”.
The regulator said scheme will be widened to new parents who did not submit a 2018/19 tax return or whose trading profits were less than their other income in that year’s tax return, adding that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will likely determine eligibility on the basis of 2017/18 and 2016/17 tax returns where this is the case.
Additionally, “changes are expected to operate in a similar way for reservists”, with reservist income “likely to be disregarded when establishing eligibility”.
But the changes will not benefit thousands of cases where parents “were already eligible for a grant, but received a lower amount because their income from self-employment was reduced in the period on which the grant was based”, said the ICAEW.
The changes come after the Government announced it would extend the SEISS for a further three months, covering lost income from June to August 2020.
The second – and last – payment will only be worth 70 per cent of average monthly trading profits, compared to 80 per cent in the first payment.
For more self-employment advice, please get in touch with our expert team today.