Calls for Rishi Sunak to bring forward announcement date of the 4th SEISS grant
Updated: Feb 9, 2021
A petition has started calling for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to bring forward the announcement date of the Government's fourth Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
Self-employed workers in the UK have been left waiting for details of the latest SEISS financial package to be released as lockdown continues to suffocate most industries.
Rishi Sunak is planning to announce details of the fourth SEISS in his spring budget on 3 March, but there are now pressing calls for him to move that date to ease the stress and financial pressure on those struggling.
In a petition calling for the date change, it says: "A lot of self-employed people just used a large proportion of our SEISS 3 grant award to pay our tax bill. This, coupled with necessary covid restrictions is substantially reducing the amount of money to live on.
”Rishi Sunak is planning to announce SEISS 4 in his Spring budget on March 3rd. This is way too late for a lot of people in this situation. Therefore, we are petitioning him to bring the release date forward to mid-February.”
The fourth SEISS grant will cover three months from February to April 2021, but the date applications will open and at what percentage of earnings it will be offered at, has not yet been confirmed.
The third SEISS grant, which was worth 80 percent of average monthly trading profits has now closed.
Claimants of the third SEISS grant must have been affected financially by the coronavirus pandemic on or after 1 November to be eligible for payment.
SEISS is open to self-employed people or members of partnerships, but not to individuals who trade through a limited company or trust.
To be eligible for the grants, a claimant needs to earn at least half of their income from self-employment, with average trading profits not exceeding £50,000.
A claimant must have traded in 2018 - 2019 tax year and 2019 -2020 tax year to be eligible.
Government criteria states: "Individuals must be currently trading but are impacted by reduced demand due to coronavirus. Alternatively, individuals may also have been trading but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus.”
