Rishi Sunak has announced a new self-employed income support scheme. The Government will pay self-employed people, who have been adversely affected by Coronavirus, a taxable grant worth 80% of their average monthly profits over the last three years, up to £2,500 a month.

The scheme will be open to people across the UK and will run for at least three months.

Grants will be claimable alongside continued earnings.

The scheme will be available for individuals with trading profits of up to £50,000. To make sure only the genuinely self-employed benefit, it will be available to those who make the majority of their income from self-employment. To minimise fraud only those with a tax return for 2019 will be available to apply. 95% of those who are majority self-employed will be able to access the scheme…

HMRC expect to have the scheme set up no later than the beginning of June, however support in the form of the business interruption loans, self-assessment income tax payments have been deferred, and self-employed people can access Universal Credit in full.