27 March 2020

New help announced for the self-employed

The chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the following support for the self-employed on 26 March 2020: 

  • The scheme is for those with average profits per year of £50,000 or less and who make most of their income from self-employment. 
  • The government says it hopes the scheme will be up and running by the start of June 2020. Application will be via a simple online form. HMRC will contact self-employed people and ask them to fill in the form. 
  • The scheme is open to those who are already self-employed and have a Self Assessment tax return for 2019. 
  • Self-employed individuals who haven’t filed their January 2020 tax return (for the previous financial year 2018/2019) will be given four weeks to do this so they can still benefit from the scheme. 
  • Self-employed individuals will be able to claim 80% of their monthly wages as a ‘taxable grant’ from the government. This will be calculated using average monthly profits over the past three financial years. If three years of tax returns are not available, the grant will be based on whatever tax returns the self-employed person has submitted. The grant will be paid in one sum to cover three months. 
  • Payments will be capped at £2,500 a month. 
  • The scheme will initially be for three months but may be extended. 
  • The self-employed can also access the coronavirus business interruption loan.
  • Those who pay themselves a salary and dividends through their own company are not covered by the scheme but may be covered by the coronavirus job retention scheme if they are operating PAYE.

Read FAQs about this on the government website.

Find more information about this on the government website.

Scam warning

The government has stressed that you cannot apply for this scheme yet. HMRC will contact you if you are eligible – but this will not happen for a while. In the meantime, the government has issued the following warning about scammers and fraudsters:

You will access this scheme only through the government website. If someone texts, calls or emails claiming to be from HMRC, saying that you can claim financial help or are owed a tax refund, and asks you to click on a link or to give information such as your name, credit card or bank details, it is a scam.

Additional help

The government is also providing the following help for the self-employed:

See all updates

More information and resources from the NHBF

  • Members can call our membership team, Monday-Friday, 9-5, on 01234 831965. Please be patient due to the extremely high level of calls we are currently getting.