Claims to the value of more than £6 billion made to Self-Employment Income Support Scheme in first five days since opening

New HMRC statistics also show that 2 million claims had been made to the scheme by midnight on 17 May 2020

Claims to the value of more than £6 billion have been made to the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) in the first five days since it opened, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced.

In a new weekly statistics release on take-up of the SEISS and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) issued today, HMRC reports that - 

• 441,00 claims were made to the SEISS on the day it opened on 13 May 2020;
• total claims increased to two million as at midnight on 17 May 2020; and  
• the value of claims made up to 17 May 2020 was £6.1 billion.

In addition, providing an update on CJRS claims data that, until recently, had only been published on HMRC’s twitter feed, it advises that -

• almost one million employers (986,000) furloughed their staff between 20 April 2020 (when the CJRS opened for applications) and 17 May 2020;
• eight million employees have been furloughed up to 17 May 2020; and
• a total of £11.1 billion has been claimed from the scheme.

NB - figures for the other UK-wide coronavirus support schemes - the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme - have also been updated today.

For more information, see HMRC coronavirus (COVID-19) statistics from gov.uk