[NWH]

Free money lol get real this money people are getting is in no way free and the coming years you will see that when you have to pay it back for the rest of your life,why not means get a second mortgage why not means go out and get that new car why not means have that holiday,it also means debt you’ll be paying tomorrow what you’ve had today only it won’t just be tomorrow.
Free money is a lottery win if it’s inheritance you’ve paid for it in the loss of someone,no such thing as like you say free money.

[NWH]

If you take money you don’t need you are contributing to the overall debt,some people call it greed some people say you should go out and work and don’t keep accepting hand outs when you don’t need it.

[dazmond]

Wow , apply again in Aug and you get 70 % up to a max of £6570 

WOW!some of you will be able to afford a decent professional hot water system at this rate!

[NWH]

I don’t know about buying a hot water system they want to get some better work first if they can’t keep going for a few months during this time without constantly claiming,still a lot of 1 o’clock window cleaners out there.

[P @ F]

I’m more of a 10 to 2 dude 

[NWH]

How are those hot systems going

[Mike Burd]

Gutted I can't get it being Ltd but I absolutely would take it if I could.

There's going to be big tax hikes for all following this so if you can't beat em join em imo.

And that’s exactly the way these thickos are thinking about Cummings . If he can go out then I can , absolutely thick. All these businesses on here turning over x amount of turnover and yet haven’t got 2 pennies to rub together it’s laughable. You’d be better off working in tescos

I'd say the number of people that could go 8 weeks with no income in this country without going into debt would be single figures percentage wise.

[Dave Willis]

Wow , apply again in Aug and you get 70 % up to a max of £6570 

WOW!some of you will be able to afford a decent professional hot water system at this rate!

Even our own houses!!!

[zesty]

Haven’t read most of the thread, but I will only take it if I’m still down on my commercial work.

If I get all my work back between now and then, I won’t take it.

If I’m still down on regular work, then I will.

Who knows. We’ve got a while yet.

[NWH]

The next claim I reckon will be looked into I would tread carefully if you’ve been working and earning anywhere near what you usually would be,its not a free for all to just keep getting free money 🤣🤣

[[GQC] Tim]

NWH, as far as I'm aware the SEISS is already budgeted by the government for all self employed to take. Whether or not everyone takes it or not, it's such a minor drop in the pond of national borrowing where all of us will be paying for years to come so it really doesn't matter whether you take it or not.

Unless there's some sort of vaccine, we'll be in this situation for years to come. And the extent of the recession our children and grandchildren will be suffering from.

The HMRC will not be asking the first one back as long as you pay your tax and NI on it as they've already said. It's not free money, that's silly to say.

If they would of said, you can claim what you've lost, great, we'll work it all out, but you can't claim for that. It's either all or nothing. You also have no idea about the future or how much potential work you've lost. There's no way to tell, only at the end of all this.

In which case we'll have to be the judge of that for these months but also years to come. Especially when furlough end, the UK will see the true scale of what we're in. This is not 2009.

So is it immoral to take the grant, the first one or the second? For most if not all of us, of course not, that's preposterous. We have all been adversely affected. We'll lose a lot more in the years to come but only at the end will we truly know.

Also the amount of COVID idiots out there that are taking us straight into another lockdown is unbelievable. It's like nothing has happened, go out in the streets, roads and car parks in town and country. Taking the grant is more like self protection against them isn't it. You only have to look at your neighbours or your road to understand what I mean.

[G Griffin]

Can't claim until August so it's probably best to wait till then before making a decision rather than guessing what shape you'd business is going to be in. Already 3 of the top scientists have come out against the speed we're leaving lock down, the Sage committee reckoned on 1000 new cases a day by now, we have 8000 plus so who knows what's round the corner, we could be heading for a full on European type lock down for all we know,im taking life a day at a time.

Correct.
The first one hasn't expired yet and folk are already looking at the second. How do you know that you've been adversely affected yet? It's for June, July and August  .

Are the pubs/hotels/shops etc opening on Monday? No. Are they all going to be opening at all in June? No.
Theres several hundred pounds of my turnover gone for that period. I know that I will be affected in that period.

Great for all the businesses that are primarily domestic window cleaners and have not been affected so far, but people need to stop talking in generalisations about all window cleaners being out of order for taking grants that are specifically designed to help them. This is literally a case of 'mind your own business' because everyones is different.

It doesn't change the fact that you can only claim in August. I also realise that it's a self employed grant and not a window cleaning one.
Who knows where we'll be in August or even the conditions of the extension?
I understand your position and you might be out of pocket until August but that's they way it is. We're still getting paid.

[NWH]

You had to apply for the first but that was a formality 80% across 3 years accounts would give you the amount you’d receive,this second grant regardless of what people think will be more scrutinised unless you cut hair for a living.
It won’t be difficult for them to know who’s file to pull because as soon as they see a business such as window cleaning or many other outdoor trades it’ll narrow it down somewhat don’t you think.

[Spruce]

You had to apply for the first but that was a formality 80% across 3 years accounts would give you the amount you’d receive,this second grant regardless of what people think will be more scrutinised unless you cut hair for a living.
It won’t be difficult for them to know who’s file to pull because as soon as they see a business such as window cleaning or many other outdoor trades it’ll narrow it down somewhat don’t you think.

They could easily ask for turn over figures in quarters on the next income tax return instead of a lump sum.
 

[Shrek]

I can see it now ....tax man :  were you adversely affected during the 3 months after the first payment?
Window cleaner : yes .... I thought I might lose Mrs smith from number 10 spank street later in the year, and I might have lost business in the future.
Tax man: ...... ...... Your books show you were doing pretty good. so you weren’t affected . Il have that money back thank you very much.
Window cleaner : ..... oh , I spent the money on a massive leaflet drop , hot water system and a new van 😢 

[[GQC] Tim]

I can see it now ....tax man :  were you adversely affected during the 3 months after the first payment?
Window cleaner : yes .... I thought I might lose Mrs smith from number 10 spank street later in the year, and I might have lost business in the future.
Tax man: ...... ...... Your books show you were doing pretty good. so you weren’t affected . Il have that money back thank you very much.
Window cleaner : ..... oh , I spent the money on a massive leaflet drop , hot water system and a new van 

Are you talking about the second grant or the first one?

The first one the government has already said they will not ask it back. And if you ve been a good boy you've put the tax aside already in a savings account for 2020/2021 and if you haven't used it all to cover work lost you'd be wise to put it in a savings account for a rainy day.

Whether or not you should accept the grant was summed up quite nicely to an accountant I spoke to:

"They're offering you a cigar out of your own box, I'd take the grant"

He's got a point.

And when the UK government can't borrow any more more as investors are turning them down the next lockdown, there won't be a second opportunity to change your mind. I'll be very happy then to have a few extra grand that I received in an emergency fund.

271,222 have been known to be infected on a population of 66 million. You don't need to be a mathematician to see that unless we get a vaccin we will be in this for a very, very long time. Herd immunity starts at 35mil infected.

Brace yourself is all I can say.

[NWH]

Forget the first grant that was more or less a gift to people as they know the vast majority of self employed people would be effected,I shouldn’t say gift really more of a safeguard against not being able to work.
At 1 point I was near enough the only person manually working in certain areas all I’m saying is later down the line your return will say grant received,forget the 1st one it will also say August grant received again X amount that coupled with the fact you’ve been earning more or less the same it won’t look good on paper in fact in my eyes it would look fraudulent.

[NWH]

It’s not supposed to be an emergency fund for you either it’s supposed to be money that you’ll need to get you through this process of not being able to work lol,so you in effect especially after August should be able to carry on working.
If you are a hairdresser or in a business that can’t trade until October you have every right to apply again,all I’m saying is you may end up at some point with a black marker against your name and having to pay it back along with your Tax bill on top because the figures showed you never needed it in the first place.

[֍Winp®oClean֍]

You jealous or something Nigel? Sounds to me like you've been cooking your books for the last 3 years and are reaping what you sown🤣🤣
You're so overly concerned what others are claiming it sounds like bitter envy!😄

[adman]

Anyone here get child health benefit? I don't need it for my kids health, but I'm entitled to it, so I accept it.  Anyone use the NHS that could afford private Healthcare? I do, because I'm entitled to it.  Hopefully when I'm of pension age, I won't need a state pension, free bus pass, free TV licence or winter heating payment, but I will accept them like all the other pensioners without any pangs of conscience that other pensioners are less well off than me.

2 of my biggest three customers will not likely feature for me this year, so if I am entitled to the grant due to my business being adversely affected, I will accept it.  There will be no action from HMRC that I will be in the least bothered about.