A non-client pal called. He is one of those who has felt aggrievedly Excluded since April on common Creative Industry grounds - life is a mixture of PAYE and S/E, PAYE is usually short-term and doesn't lead to furlough, ineligible for SEISS because in most years S/E profit just under 50% of total.
Applied for Round 1 and was rejected, correctly in my view on a quick scan of his figures.
Received a letter inviting application for Round 2 - applied more in hope than expectation - and successful. Rang HMRC to express mystification. Not given any explanation beyond "that's what the computer says". Asked if he could have a review of Round 1 and told it is too late for that.
This makes no sense to me.I understood that the only reason someone could be eligible for R2 but not R1 is if their business was adversely affected after 14/7 and not before. That does not apply to him, nor is there any conceivable or confusable reason why it would.
I have a number of ongoing complaints re Round 1 in, but am just interested to know if anyone has had similar this week? Thanks all.
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Difficult to have confidence in HMRC
If entitled, should be both
If not entitled then a recommencement of the overpayments mentioned on ealier thread
But definitely HMRC are wrong
He will soon be requested to pay it back. The argument would be he knew he wasnt entitled anyway. So was he testing the computer by putting a claim for round 2?
Not necessarily. See thread from last week about letters acknowledging payments in error on Round 1 but with no repayment requested.
I said in the OP that he received a letter inviting him to check eligibility for Round 2, so he complied. He is quite reasonably confused. So am I.
I got to the bottom of this with further digging. Much as it pains me to say it, HMRC correct on all counts. I was wrong in my OP to say that he applied for Round 1. He didn't - it was assumed (I won't go into who assumed it because there's a separate question around that) that he would be ineligible because sums not done carefully enough at the time, so he never applied. Would have received R1 grant if application on time. 100% eligible. Lucky to have tried application for R2 and correctly received it.
It's still an imperfect piece of policy, but at least they are (mostly) applying it consistently.
