Got this from my accountant earlier, as you can see there is still a bit of guess work involved as to how it’s gonna be rolled out, but this might be helpful to get ahead of the game.
The online service you’ll use to claim is not available yet. HMRC will aim to contact you by mid May 2020, and will make payments by early June 2020.
It is possible that claims for the self employed income support scheme will need to be done through a personal tax account.
We would recommend that set up a personal tax account if you have not done so already:
https://www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account Once set up, in “Your account”, “Manage your personal details”, check your address details and update if necessary.
Then back at “Account home” click to access Self Assessment and once you enter the details you will be posted an activation code within 7 working days.
We are not sure if this is how the scheme will be accessed, but best to be ready ahead of time just in case.
You can see the HMRC guidance on the scheme here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme