Government Support – November 2020

Government Support

Over the last few days with the start of the second lockdown in England there have been several updates to the government support packages. Below is a brief summary of the position:

Local Authorities

Local authority grants of £3,000 per month for businesses which have had to close.
Backdated cash grants for businesses in Tier 2/3 restricted areas in England. Businesses in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors that suffered from reduced demand due to local restrictions introduced between 1 August and 5 November will receive backdated grants of 70% of the value of closed grants up to a maximum of £2,100 per month for this period.
Applications are made to your local authority.

CJRS – Furlough

Extended until the end of March for all parts of the UK. The revised position is:
Eligible employees will receive 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
Businesses will have flexibility to use the scheme for employees for any amount of time and shift pattern, including furloughing them full-time.
No employer contribution to wages for hours not worked.
Employers will have to cover National Insurance and Employer pension contributions for hours not worked.
To be reviewed in January to decide depending on whether economic circumstances are improving enough to ask employers to contribute more.
The extended CJRS will operate as the previous Scheme did. Claims made for November must be submitted to HMRC by no-later than 14 December 2020.
Claims relating to each subsequent month should be submitted by day 14 of the following month
An employer can claim for employees who were employed and on their PAYE payroll on 30 October 2020.
The employer must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee.
Employees that were employed and on the payroll on 23 September 2020, who were made redundant or stopped working afterwards can be re-employed and claimed for.

The Job retention bonus (£1,000 per employee) will now not be paid in February, but maybe paid later.

Self Employed Income Support Scheme – SEISS

The level of the grant has been increased to 80% of trading profits covering the quarter November 2020 to January 2021.
This will be paid as a single payment with an upper limit of £7,500.
Payment should be available before Christmas.
A fourth round covering the period to April 2021 will be announced in due course

Business Loan Schemes

The deadline for applications for the government backed loan schemes (Bounce Back & CBILS) have both been extended to 31 January 2021.
The Bounce Back Loans, which were limited to a single payment, have been amended to allow applications to be made for a further tranche of money on the same loan.
The total borrowing limit for Bounce Back Loans remains at the lower of £50,000 or 25% of the business turnover in the year ended 31 December 2019.

Deferred VAT Payments

HMRC are also being favourable to businesses and individuals that need time to pay VAT, PAYE and Income Tax liabilities.

For Individuals

Individuals are able to take advantage of payment holidays of up to 6 months on a range of finance products including mortgages, personal loans and car finance without it affecting their credit file. However, although the loan payments are not being made in most circumstances interest will continue to be charged.

Call my team on 01661872004 if you need any assistence concerning Covid 19 government support for businesses.