SEISS and break in self employment

HI
I have just received a query regarding SEISS. The client has been self employed for many years but in tax year 18/19, she traded from april 18 - september 18, and then took a break. she wasnt sure if she would restart her business due to personal circumstances. She therefore ended her self employment.  She did submit a tax return at the usual time. In May 2019, she started trading again, and remains in self employment now. In view of the criteria, it states you must have
“traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted your Self Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year
you traded in the tax year 2019 to 2020
you intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
you carry on a trade which has been adversely affected by coronavirus”

so my question is do you have to have still been trading at the end of 2019? or just traded in that year, and then in 19/20.  She did trade in 18/19 and did submit her tax return; she did trade in 19/20 and intends to carry on so is the fact that she ended her self employment and restarted fatal to her claim?

thank you

Nope, there is no requirement for a person to have been trading at the end of 18-19. As you say, the requirement is to “have carried on a trade in the tax years 2018-19 and 2019-20” (Para 4.2(c) here).

that’s great thank you. I have advised accordingly and she is going to call and dispute decision so interesting to see what happens.