Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Fifth Grant

Self-employed individuals will shortly have the opportunity to apply for the SEISS Fifth Grant, which is intended to provide financial relief for self-employed people whose businesses continue to be adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.  

Applications to this grant will be accepted from late July 2021, and the grant is intended to cover May to September 2021.

  • Eligibility for the grant is calculated in line with the following:
  • You must be a self-employed individual, or a member of a partnership.
  • You must have traded in tax year 2019/20 (and have submitted your tax return on or before 2 March 2021)
  • You must also have traded in tax year 2020/21
  • You must either
  • be currently trading but are impacted by reduced demand due to coronavirus

have been trading but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus

To work out your eligibility for the SEISS Fifth Grant, HMRC will first look at your 2019/20 Self Assessment tax return.  Your trading profits must be no more than £50,000 and at least equal to your non-trading income.

If you are not eligible based on your 2019/20 tax return, the HMRC will then look at tax years 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20.

To claim, you must declare that:

  • you intend to continue to trade
  • you reasonably believe that there will be a significant reduction in your trading profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, demand, or inability to trade due to coronavirus from May 2021 to September 2021


You must keep evidence that shows how your business has been impacted by coronavirus, resulting in less business activity than would be otherwise expected.

For those whose turnover has reduced by 30% or more, the SEISS Fifth Grant will provide a taxable grant calculated at 80% of three months’ average trading profits.  It will be paid out in a single instalment and will be capped at £7,500.

For those whose turnover has reduced by less than 30%, the SEISS Fifth Grant will provide a taxable grant calculated at 30% of 3 months’ average trading profits, and will be paid out in a single instalment which will be capped at £2,850.

The HMRC SEISS claims portal will be available from late July 2021.  HMRC will contact eligible individuals to issue each person with a personal claim date, which is the date they will be able to make their specific claim from.

HMRC will release further advice about how to claim by the end of June 2021.

Further information can be found on gov.uk here.