Produced in partnership with the UK Government
There is a wide range of financial support available to firms of all sizes.
Find here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support.
The owner of an award-winning dental practice says he faced dire shortages in funding his business during the Covid-19 pandemic and government-induced lockdown.
Dr Kunal Patel, owner of Love Teeth, has continued to pay staff salaries despite his practice not meeting the requirements for the furlough scheme.
Though the dental surgery still receives it’s NHS income, it only makes up a fifth of the practice’s revenues. Dr Patel faced a significant funding gap since he closed his door to patients on 16th March.
The Government’s unprecedented economic plan and packages of support to protect jobs and support business across the UK during the coronavirus outbreak are the most comprehensive in the world.
Businesses can use the simple business support finder to check whether they are eligible for financial support: https://www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder
Dr Patel’s practice qualified for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), and managed to secure a £250,000 loan through Lloyds bank.
“As dentists we acutely aware of the risks of contacting viruses in our work and we knew we had to close our doors to help fight the spread of Covid-19,” says Dr Patel.
“Keeping our team and community safe was a priority and we had to think of the greater good.
“My staff are like part of the family, it would have been disastrous if we had to lose any of them. Now the whole team stands ready to be deployed when called upon.
“We want to help our NHS colleagues but we also want to reassure our patients that we will be back to complete their treatments and serve our community again.”
The practice also moved to donate all of its PPE including 3,000 pairs of gloves and 750 face masks to the NHS.
If your business needs to hire now, the Government can help you fill your vacancies quickly.
Businesses are advised to keep job descriptions as generic as possible to make sure you don’t miss out on great people with transferable skills. There’s access to skilled and experienced people for all kinds of jobs, please visit: https://employerhelp.dwp.gov.uk to find out more.
Economic Emergency Packages
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• Businesses across the UK can put employees on a period of temporary leave (furlough) and apply for a government grant to cover 80% of those workers’ usual monthly wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 a month.
• The scheme is now available until the end of October.
• The scheme has already protected 7.5 million workers and almost 1 million businesses.
Self-Employment Income Support
Scheme (SEISS)
• The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme allows eligible self-employed individuals to claim a taxable grant of 80% of their average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months, and capped at £7,500 in total. Around 95% of people who receive the majority of their income through self-employment could be eligible.
• To benefit from SEISS, you need to receive at least half of your income from being self-employed and be earning under £50,000 in profits.
• You can use HMRC’s eligibility checker to see if you could benefit from the scheme.
Statutory Sick Pay
• The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme will repay employers the current rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) that they pay to current or former employees for periods of sickness starting on or after 13 March 2020.
VAT deferrals
• The Government has given the option to defer VAT payments to UK VAT-registered firms, for payments due alongside VAT returns until the end of June. If you’re a UK VAT-registered business and have a VAT payment due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, you have the option to either defer the payment until a later date, or pay the VAT due as normal.
• HMRC will not charge interest or penalties on any amount deferred.
Business rates holiday and eviction
protection
• The Government has introduced a business rates holiday for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors and nurseries, meaning
eligible properties in England will pay no business rates this year. This relief is worth almost £10 billion.
• Commercial tenants who cannot pay their rent because of coronavirus will be protected from eviction.
Grants
• The Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) provides businesses with a £10,000 grant per property, for each of their properties which is in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rates Relief. This scheme is only applicable in England.
• The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) provides businesses with grants of up to £25,000 per property, for each retail, hospitality or leisure property with a rateable value below £51,000. This scheme is only applicable in England.
• Local authorities are contacting eligible businesses directly to arrange grant payments. If a business believes they are eligible and has not yet heard from their local authority, they should get in touch with them to ask about these payments.
• On 1 May, the Government also allocated up to an additional £617 million to local authorities to enable them to make discretionary grants to small businesses in their communities, which have been excluded from the SBGF and RHLGF because of the way they interact with the business rates system. This only applies in England.
• Businesses are being encouraged to look out for their local authority’s version of the Discretionary Grants Fund, and to contact their local authority for more information in due course. This only applies in England.
Loans
• The Government’s Bounce Back Loans Scheme provides loans of up to £50,000 to small businesses, with an 100% government – backed guarantee for lenders. These loans will be interest free for the first 12 months and businesses can apply online with a short and simple form.
• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme is available for loans or other forms of finance of up to £5m.
• The Government will pay interest and any fees for the first 12 months, and will provide the lender with an 80% guarantee to support the lending.
• This scheme is available UK-wide.
• The Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) supports large businesses with an annual turnover of over £45 million per year to apply for up to £25 million of finance.
Future Fund
The Future Fund will issue convertible loans between £125,000 to £5 million to innovative companies which are facing financing difficulties due to the coronavirus outbreak.
