SEISS is based on annual earnings!
Many people across the country undertake seasonal self-employed roles, in industries such as; summer sports, hotels and campsites, children’s camps and music festivals. Normally earning as much as they can during the summer months and then taking lower paid employed roles in the winter months. Unfortunately, while JRS includes a mechanism to account for fluctuating and seasonal pay, SEISS does not and assumes that income is created evenly throughout the year.
This means seasonally self-employed workers, will see their higher summer income averaged over 12 months. Depending on work patterns and their total earnings this could have a small or dramatic impact.
A seasonal self-employed worker who earns £12,000 over four months in the summer, would see their £3,000/month salary treated as £1,000/month by SEISS, only receiving a first grant of £2,400 compared to someone on JRS who would have received £7,200 for the same period.
Although a seasonal self-employed person earning over £37,500 will see no impact regardless of their working patterns. This is because they still average an income equal or more than the £2,500 SEISS and JRS caps.
This gap effects anyone claiming a SEISS grant that with fluctuating income that usually earns higher in the summer than the winter.