Financial help for small UK businesses during the pandemic
How can small businesses survive the onslaught of Coronavirus? The future certainly looked bleak when the UK government first made clear the restrictions involved in lockdown. Unable to trade and receive funds just to cover daily costs is leading to forecasts that not only small businesses will collapse – products and services will become unavailable to the general public and the UK economy will plummet into recession.
But the government has introduced various measures to ease financial distress and unemployment.
Loan aid
The UK government under the leadership of Boris Johnson has been criticised for not acting fast enough on many factors concerning the Coronavirus outbreak, but the introduction of the Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), could offer a great helping hand to employers in these difficult times.
Launched on 23rd March 2020 to allow small to medium-sized businesses access loans and overdrafts from the British Business Bank (BBB), the scheme is aimed squarely at those businesses who have been hit by the pandemic and have a turnover of less than £45 million a year,
By becoming a member of the Financial Stability Board, an interested party can check their eligibility with a range of accredited financial providers. The full list of accredited lenders is available on the BBB website. The Development Bank of Wales is currently offering customers a 3 month capital repayment holiday.
Help with Tax?
As well as CBILS there is also a HMRC helpline for businesses who are looking for a deferral period on their tax liabilities. A comprehensive link to the measure that the government have put in place can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19
Claiming furlough
The government has also recognised the importance of enabling small businesses to hold onto employees. The Job Retention Scheme was launched on the 20th March. The scheme will enable eligible employers to pay 80% of their monthly salary. This outlet is now live and if you are an employer and wish to make a claim you need to go to the HMRC website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#what-youll-need-to-make-a-claim
The three main factors for eligibility are (1) you will need to have created a payroll scheme before the 20th March, (2) you will need to be enrolled for PAYE online and (3) you will need a UK bank account. You can only claim for employees who were on your payroll on or before the 19th March 2020. Employees can be full-time or part-time and you can claim for apprentices and people on zero-hour contracts.
Need A Space self-storage is currently closed due to the pandemic. We look forward to offering the same-high quality services to our customers when lock down is eased.
From all the staff at Need A Space: Take care. Keep safe,