Kelly-Anne Byres, director of KBL Accounts, explains what to do and when to make sure coronavirus doesn’t leave you out of pocket

East Anglian Daily Times: Kelly-Anne Byres of KBL Picture: STEPHEN WALLERKelly-Anne Byres of KBL Picture: STEPHEN WALLER (Image: � Stephen Waller)

The short answer to this question is no.

For the life of me, I do not know why the government have made this decision but on May 4 they announced that anyone applying for Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) had to do it themselves. They are not allowed to use an agent.

Now I work with hundreds of self-employed workers and know how patiently they have all been waiting for information on help in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. I also know that many of them shy away from financial paperwork and leave that up to us to sort out.

All I can say here is – don’t bury your head in the sand and miss out.

The scheme goes live on May 13 and should mean self-employed individuals can claim a taxable grant of 80% of their average monthly trading profits up to £7,500.

The best way for me to help you access this money is to walk you through the process. Before you reach May 13, you should check your eligibility using this link.

If you qualify, HMRC will tell you the date you can make your claim from and, if your claim is approved, you’ll receive your payment within six working days.

When checking if you are eligible, you will be asked to input your Unique Taxpayer Reference and National Insurance number. Don’t panic if you’ve forgotten them – there are links to guide you through the retrieval process and if not, your accountant can provide you with this information.

You will then be asked to sign into your Government Gateway account. Again, no panicking!

You will need a Government Gateway user ID and password – something a lot of self-employed people may not have. But you can create one when you check your eligibility and the form will take you through this.

Once again, make sure you get all this information together well before May 13th – you have waited a long time for this help and you don’t want anything holding you up further!

Finally, while we can’t do the application for you, we are happy to give you any advice you need to assist you. Contact us by visiting www.kblaccounts.com