![\"COVID](\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/covidsom.png\" "\\"COVID")
They get, worse. They really do. Why do people who are usually unable to even do their own accounts insist on reading into things, and then create concerns among others?<\/p>\n\n\n\nThey get, worse. They really do. Why do people who are usually unable to even do their own accounts insist on reading into things, and then create concerns among others?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few weeks ago, it was announced that the SEISS scheme would be paid for a 2nd and final time, and you\u2019ll be able to apply in August. Bear in mind that SEISS is not something created specifically for driving instructors \u2013 it is for self-employed people. It may come as a surprise, but there are more self-employed people out there than there are driving instructors. A lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Government website states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThis scheme is being extended, and you\u2019ll be able to claim a second and final grant in August 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will work out your eligibility the same way as the first grant. If you make a claim for the second grant you will have to confirm your business has been adversely affected on or after 14 July 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This grant will be a taxable grant worth 70% of your average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering a further 3 months\u2019 worth of profits, and capped at \u00a36,570 in total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can claim for the second and final grant even if you did not make a claim for the first grant.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
It is the part about \u2018on or after 14 July\u2019 which has steamed up a few pairs of bifocals. Apparently, if you twist it around enough, you can convince yourself that they aren\u2019t paying you for June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look, it\u2019s really simple. In August you will be able to claim 70% of your average monthly business profit (not 80%, like last time), for a further three months of missed work. It\u2019s up to you whether you include June in that, but it\u2019s still three months \u2013 it says so in black and white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The part about having to confirm your business is affected is fairly obvious \u2013 because of the aforementioned belief that SEISS is only for instructors. That condition was in there from the moment they announced it on 31 May, and is more relevant to the vast majority of self-employed people who could be working fairly normally by that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re one of those instructors who has been itching to get back \u2013 and even if you\u2019re one of the ones who has spent the time since March spamming every message board going telling people \u2018technically, we can<\/strong> work\u2019, even though you haven\u2019t \u2013 if you are working before 14 July then it\u2019s your<\/strong> problem if HMRC decides you are not affected and therefore not eligible. Just as it would be for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem here is that it is obvious to anyone with any sense that driving instructors should not<\/strong> be working right now. Even if you manage to cram all the good things you\u2019ve read into a toothpaste tube and squeeze them out into a convoluted sentence that leads you to conclude you technically can<\/strong> work, you shouldn\u2019t be. Even if you dunk your car in a bath of sanitizer between lessons you shouldn\u2019t be. And even if you conduct lessons wearing a deep-sea diving suit you shouldn\u2019t be. Because the virus is still there, at quite a high level, and you will be shut in a tin box with strangers less than half a metre away from you for hours at a time. The only thing you\u2019re thinking of is money \u2013 which explains why some people are prepared both to go back to work as soon as they can and<\/strong> try to claim SEISS on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know full well I will not be working on 14 July. Even if I technically can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re going to take it off you again<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
No. They. Aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus, how thick do you need to be? If you were eligible in the first place \u2013 by not working at all, and not getting a mountain of income from stocks and shares, or a pension \u2013 the first SEISS is yours, as long as you didn\u2019t lie to them. If you did<\/strong> lie, it serves you right if you have to pay it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The criterion was that if more than 50% of your income over the last three years was from self-employment, you were eligible for the SEISS. That\u2019s how it was for me \u2013 initially, 100% of my income was from self-employment over the last three years, and half way through it switched to 70% self-employment and 30% private pension. My PAYE account, along with my self-assessment, shows HMRC clearly what my income was. I had purposely dialled back on work because of my pension \u2013 with hindsight, and for purely financial reasons, I wish I hadn’t. But that\u2019s irrelevant. Even if I\u2019d always<\/strong> had that pension, I\u2019d still have been eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In August, and unless I am am working normally, I will be eligible again. I may have to prove that, but it would be no issue at all doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only way you\u2019d need to pay anything back is if it turned out you\u2019d been working normally throughout the period. If they caught up with you on that, it\u2019s up to you<\/strong> to sort it out. You shouldn\u2019t<\/strong> have been working, and if you were and still claimed, you only have yourself to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n