As Lockdown has been announced for England from Thur 5th Nov, here’s a round up of the latest business support below:
1. Furlough/JSS – UK wide and for all sectors
- Furlough is extended and returns to August’s rules ie the Government pays 80% of a worker’s salary capped at £2,500 per month, and the employer will have to meet the cost of National Insurance payments and pension contributions
- Claims will be in advance, as the previous scheme worked. There may be a few days’ delay whilst the Government updates the system and if necessary, businesses will be paid in arrears for that period.
- As under the current CJRS, flexible furloughing will be allowed in addition to full-time furloughing.
- All employers with a UK bank account and UK PAYE schemes can claim the grant. Neither the employer nor the employee needs to have previously used the CJRS.
- For employees to be eligible to have a claim made for them, employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll by 23:59 30th October 2020. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment for that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 30th October 2020
- JSS will not come in until furlough ends
- Employees need to sign to agree to their acceptance to any furlough. A template letter for employers is likely to be here on ACAS website shortly (it hasn’t yet been updated & still includes JSS letters)
- Local Authority Grants –England only but similar schemes in devolved regions
- For businesses required to close in England due to local or national restrictions will be eligible for grants from their Local Authority, however these schemes will take some time to be set up
- For properties with a rateable value of £15k or under, grants to be £1,334 per month, or £667 per two weeks
- For properties with a rateable value of between £15k-£51k grants to be £2,000 per month, or £1,000 per two weeks
- For properties with a rateable value of £51k or over grants to be £3,000 per month, or £1,500 per two weeks
- Each LA will also have a discretionary grant scheme, and they will set their own criteria but may include other businesses who either:
- Are not rateable but will be impacted and also have some fixed property costs (eg some B&Bs, shared offices etc);
- and possibly, are not ordered to close but are still heavily impacted eg wedding sector
- unlikely to be available for those businesses who work from home, but check your clients’ LA own schemes
- Other Grants
- LEPs are starting to offer some recovery schemes.
- Loans
- So far, we haven’t heard whether CBILS or Bounce Back loan schemes will be extended, or indeed if a second BBL will be possible. The deadline for applications is still 30th November 2020 but as lenders become busier, their turnaround times are getting much longer.
