SEISS Pre-Claim checks

HMRC will be carrying out SEISS pre-claim checks by contacting up to 27,000 potentially eligible customers to undertake a pre-claim check before the fifth SEISS grant opens.

They will write to affected customers to let them know that they’ll phone them on the number they provided in their 2019-20 Self Assessment tax return to check their identity and business activity.

Customers will need to provide one form of identity and three months’ worth of UK bank statements from the 2019-2020 tax year in order to claim under the SEISS scheme.

If you have changed your telephone number and HMRC are unable to reach you, you should contact them on 0800‌‌ ‌024‌‌ ‌1222, and they’ll update their records with the new telephone number and arrange for a call back. Please note, this 0800 number can only be used to provide a new telephone number. Advisors will not be able to transfer customers to another department or talk to them about the letter they have received.

Please remember that as an agent, I’m not able to claim SEISS or submit these documents on your behalf, but can help you. You can find more support on GOV‌‌.UK by searching ‘check genuine HMRC contact’. Customers can also search ‘scams’ on GOV‌‌.UK for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact and how to avoid and report scams.

Eligibility for the fifth grant

To be eligible, self-employed people (including members of partnerships) must:

have submitted their 2019-20 tax return on or before 2 March 2021
have trading profits that are no more than £50,000 and at least equal to their non-trading income, based on their 2019-20 tax return or an average of relevant tax years between 2016-17 and 2019-20
declare that they intend to continue to trade and are either:
- currently trading but are impacted by reduced activity, capacity or demand due to coronavirus
- or have traded previously but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus (if the only reason a customer is temporarily unable to trade is because they have to quarantine or self-isolate after going abroad, this does not meet the requirement).
declare that they have a reasonable belief that there will be a significant reduction in their trading profits between May and September 2021 due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus.

If you heard from HMRC that you were not eligible for the fourth grant, you will not be eligible for the fifth SEISS grant either. This is because the same tax returns have been used to determine eligibility for both grants.

If you are ineligible for SEISS, you may still be eligible for other UK Government support, including Restart Grants, the Recovery Loan scheme, business rates relief and other business support schemes. For more details, search ‘coronavirus support’ on GOV‌‌.UK.