Self-employed workers will not receive fourth SEISS grant details before 3 March says Martin Lewis

Struggling self-employed workers will not receive official details of the eagerly awaited fourth Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant before the Chancellor’s Budget on 3 March according to one respected financial expert.

Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert and a TV finance presenter, announced the exclusive news via social media on Friday evening. In the video, Lewis described the move to delay releasing further information as ‘unnecessarily cruel’ for people who are in dire need of financial support in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Lewis there will not be an announcement on who is eligible for the grant, nor how much the grant will be worth, until the day of the Chancellor’s next Budget on 3 March. The delay means workers must wait over a month after the grant period starts to learn of new details surrounding the fourth SEISS payment.

Lewis said via social media: “I’ve just had Treasury confirmation that no official announcement on Self Employ grant 4 will come until 3 Mar Budget, cruelly a month after grant period starts.”

The fourth SEISS payment will cover support between February 2021 to April 2021.

The third SEISS has been available to all self-employed workers since it went live on 30 November. Those that have yet to make a claim have until next week, Friday 29 January, to make the claim.

Support for self-employed workers applying for the third SEISS grant covers November 2020 to January 2021 and has been calculated at 80% of average trading profits, up to a maximum of £7,500.

Those eligible for the third SEISS grant do not need to repay the funding, but the grant will be subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance. The SEISS payments must be reported on the claimant’s 2020-21 Self Assessment tax return.

To make a claim for the third grant the claimant’s business must have been impacted by coronavirus on or after 1 November 2020.

According to details released by HM Treasury, all claimants must keep a copy of all records in line with normal self-employment record keeping requirements. This includes the amount claimed and the grant claim reference.

HM Treasury are also asking those eligible for the grant to keep any evidence that their business has had REDUCED DEMAND due to coronavirus at the time they made the claim.

If the claimant’s business is temporarily UNABLE to trade they also must keep evidence.