Given the recent situation that has arisen with COVID-19, we thought it would be helpful to provide you with our first update following the Government announcements.
SSP
SSP is now payable to employees from day one if they are absent due to COVID-19 (rather than having to wait and not receive anything for the first 3 days).
Companies can reclaim SSP payments to employees for up to 2 weeks. Anything over that period will NOT be reclaimable.
We aren’t 100% sure, but we anticipate that the SSP will be reclaimed by receiving a credit against your PAYE liabilities. i.e. there’ll be no immediate cash flow benefit to this, but when PAYE becomes due, the amount payable for a period will be reduced by the SSP refund credited to your PAYE account.
Business Interruption Loans
These loans are available up to £5m.
These will be available from next week and businesses must apply through their high street bank and not with the government.
The loan is basically guaranteed by the government up to 80%. We think this will only be available to businesses who will be able to prove they have experienced losses. You won’t just be able to get a nice cheap loan!
The loan has no interest on it for the first 6 months.
Business Rates
All businesses in the retail, hospitality, and leisure sector will pay NO business rates for the next 12 months. The local authority will deal with these over the next few weeks.
£10,000 Grant
This grant is available to ANY business that is eligible for small business rate relief (SBRR). The business must either rent a property or own a property.
You are eligible for SBRR if your business:
– Has a property with a rateable value of less than £15,000
– And, your business has only one property (generally – in some instances it is still available if you have more than one property).
You can find the business’ rateable value on the rates statement for the year.
Anyone eligible for this grant needs to do nothing; the local authority will contact the business in the coming weeks.
£25,000 Grant
This grant is available for businesses in the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors that have rateable values between £15,001 and £51,000.
Guidance on this will be provided to the local authority by 20th March so clients can contact them from next week for more information.
Information is coming out daily and we will share as much as possible as soon as it becomes available. Until then, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will help wherever we can.
