Official Statistics

Methodology for Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics

Published 25 February 2021

1. Methodology and data sources

1.1 Coverage

This publication covers all self-employed individuals assessed for potential eligibility for the third Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant as at 31 January 2021. Generally, this includes individuals that HMRC identified as having traded in the tax year 2018 to 2019 and submitted their Self-Assessment tax return on or before 23 April 2020 for that year.

Although this covers the vast majority of cases, there are some other circumstances that are considered when including individuals for assessment and which also may affect potential eligibility to Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. You can read more about how different circumstances affect Self-Employment Income Support Scheme on GOV.UK.

Small changes in the numbers of eligible and ineligible individuals between publications may be observed as HMRC continue to review and monitor HMRC data systems to identify all potentially eligible individuals and to ensure that only genuine HMRC customers are invited to claim.

The claim information covers individuals who had submitted a claim for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme grant by 16.59pm on 31 January 2021 which had not rejected or failed certain compliance checks.

1.2 Data sources used in this release

The data for this release come from HMRC’s system for administering Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. It covers the whole population rather than a sample of people or companies.

Additional data from HMRC’s Self Assessment system and other HMRC administrative systems has been matched with Self-Employment Income Support Scheme data to produce the data released here.

The age, gender and postcode of residential address has been collected from the Self Assessment account for each individual. The industry information has been collected from the Self Assessment return for the tax year 2018 to 2019, and relates to the self-employment business description provided on that return.

To produce the geographic breakdowns, the claimants’ residential postcode has been matched to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data that links UK post codes to geographic areas. The geographic areas that have been presented in this release are country and English region, Local Authority and Parliamentary constituency.

The Self Assessment system is a live operational dataset and, as such, details such as residential address may be updated at any point. The allocation of geography and industry in these statistics is based on the latest reported information. As a result, it is possible for an individual claimant’s characteristics to change between the first publication of these statistics on 11 June and subsequent publications.

1.3 Ineligible population compared against Self-Employment Income Support Scheme eligibility criteria

Analysis of the assessed ineligible population against the eligibility criteria is as a result of additional analysis of the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme data in order to provide a description of this group of individuals. An individual can be outside of the criteria for multiple reasons for both the 2018 to 2019 Self Assessment tax return and the tax years 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, and 2018 to 2019. Additionally, it is possible for the same individual to be ineligible due to different criteria across these 2 stages. For the purposes of the figures presented here, ineligible individuals are recorded against all of the categories that apply to that individual. As a result, individuals can be ineligible in multiple ways and there is a high level of overlap between the categories presented.

2. Strengths and limitations

2.1 Experimental Statistics status

This release is classed as Experimental Statistics as the methodologies used to produce the statistics are still in their development phase. This does not mean that the statistics are of low quality, but it does signify that the statistics are new and still being developed. As the methodologies are refined and improved, there may be revisions to these statistics.

2.2 HMRC Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Management Information

Management information (MI) on the number and value of Self-Employment Income Support Scheme claims received had been published by HMRC at various dates since the scheme was launched on 13th May 2020.

This MI report will no longer be published and instead the HMRC Coronavirus statistics page will point towards these statistics.

2.3 Differences compared to Survey of Personal Incomes

In the Survey of Personal Incomes individuals are considered as Self-Employed if HMRC received or expects to receive Self Assessment forms covering income from self-employment in their 2017 to 2018 Self Assessment tax return.

The population assessed for Self-Employment Income Support Scheme eligibility includes only those individuals who submitted 2018 to 2019 Self Assessment returns by 23 April 2020 and included data on self-employment in that return.

2.4 Differences compared to other sources

Other organisations such as the ONS and Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) have published information about Self-Employment Income Support Scheme either from surveys or estimates derived from previously published data. We believe these HMRC statistics provide a more reliable picture as they are based on administrative data from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme claim and Self-Assessment systems.