Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential benefits of providing financial support to people who are (a) freelancers (b) take their pay through dividends, (c) newly self-employed, (d) have both self-employed and PAYE income and (c) other labour groups previously ineligible for financial support packages during the November 2020 covid-19 lockdown.

The Government has provided, and will continue to provide, generous support to the self-employed, including freelancers, through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Grant Extension.

The Government has acknowledged that it has not been able to support everyone as they would want. The practical issues that prevented the Government from being able to include those self-employed individuals who take their pay through dividends, namely not being able to verify the source of their dividend income without introducing unacceptable fraud risk, still remain.

Similarly, the issues that prevented eligibility being extended to the newly self-employed under previous SEISS grants, namely that HMRC will not have access to their self-assessment returns in time to verify their eligibility, also remain.

The self-employed are very diverse and have a wide mix of turnover and profits, and in some cases have substantial alternative forms of income too. The design of the SEISS, including the eligibility requirement that an individual’s trading profits must be at least equal to their non-trading income, means it is targeted at those who need it most, and who are most reliant on their self-employment income.

These eligibility criteria strike the right balance between ensuring support is granted to those who need it, and protecting value for the taxpayer.

Those not eligible for the SEISS Grant Extension may still be eligible for other elements of the unprecedented financial support package available. This includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.