Phew! That was a relief. I was worried I might not get the fourth SEISS because my 2019/20 profits were down as a result of the start of the pandemic, and it was touch and go as to whether my self-employment income amounted to more than my private pension. Fortunately, it did.
I went through the claim just after midnight, and I’ll be getting a windfall of £3,000 – which will help enormously as I gradually build back up to a decent number of hours.
It’s funny, that. I started work on the first day the lockdown was eased, but I specifically spaced lessons out so that I’d have time to sanitise the car, and kept one day free for taking the weekly Asda delivery (though I’ve started going back in over the last fortnight, and will return to a normal shopping at some stage). I didn’t try to fill each day, and if one or two were empty, no big deal. I also spaced lessons out so I could take it easy starting up again, because I knew that after a year out it might be tiring.
As it happens, it hasn’t been. It’s been fun, and I hadn’t forgotten anything. The only problem was finding out what new roads had appeared since I last went out, and which ones had either disappeared or now have roadworks on them (and Nottingham City Council decided that many roadworks should start on the same day everyone went back to work, as is their wont). But I did see that those who had tried to fill their diaries to the brim from Day One have been complaining about not enjoying it anymore (and thinking of retiring or staying in their lockdown jobs), being stressed, and being exhausted.
You only have yourselves to blame. You can’t expect to be able to run a marathon, for example, if it’s a year since you last did any jogging.