The wait is nearly over for the coronavirus self-employed income support scheme that was announced back in March.
Even though HMRC have stated it will be not ready to accept claims until 13 May, you can now check your eligibility using their online tool.
HMRC should notify you to confirm your eligibility in due course, if they haven’t already, but in the meantime the link below provides the means of checking your availability. All you need to have to hand is your unique taxpayer reference and your National Insurance number.
Once entering this, the result will state whether you could be eligible and confirms the date in which you can claim. It then invites you to log in using your government gateway log in (the one used for submitting your self-assessment returns or paying your tax bill) to let you know if there is anything you can do in advance/make sure the contact details are up to date.
Unfortunately there will not be the functionality for us as agents to assist our clients with these claims, as we have been able to with the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Therefore this means if you usually use an accountant to prepare your personal tax return, you may not have an online government gateway account. On inputting your details to find your eligibility, you are prompted to set one up – so I suggest doing this to ensure you are ready for next week!
On the plus side, the amount you can claim is based on information that HMRC already has therefore does require a lot less calculations than the CJRS. HMRC’s current guidance states that you will be told if your claim has been approved immediately following submission, and funds will be received within 6 working days.