Latest details on financial support from the government

Thursday, August 06th, 2020

Article By: Joanna Mulgrew

Financial support for small businesses. It’s all here. In support of our building community we have brought together all the coronavirus financial support we think may be relevant to your building firm.

You may be eligible for more than one scheme, whether your business is up and running, or currently out of action.

For detailed information about different types of business support schemes, check the government’s coronavirus business support page.

  • Discretionary Grant Fund
  • Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
  • Deferring VAT
  • Statutory Sick Pay rebate
  • Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme
  • Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan
  • Support for businesses paying tax: Time To Pay Service
  • Apprenticeship Bonus

Discretionary Grant Fund

Small and micro businesses with fixed property costs that are not eligible for the Small Business Grant Fund or the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund may be eligible for the Discretionary Grant Scheme.

You can get a grant of £25,000, £10,000 or any amount under £10,000.

Check if your business is eligible for the Discretionary Grant Fund

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

If you are an employer with a PAYE scheme, you should be able to access support to continue paying part of your employees’ salary instead of laying them off.

This applies to employees who have been asked to stop working because of coronavirus, but are being kept on the payroll. They are known as ‘furloughed workers’. HMRC will pay 80% of their wages, up to £2,500 per month.

You must have agreed with your employee to put them on furlough by 10 June 2020. You must claim wages for your furloughed employee by 31 July 2020.

Check if you are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Deferring VAT

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 defer payment until 31 March 2021.

Check if you are eligible to defer your VAT payment

Statutory Sick Pay rebate

Employers can reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness absence due to COVID‑19. This scheme will cover up to 2 weeks of SSP for every eligible employee.

Employers must maintain records of staff absences and payments for SSP. Employees will not have to provide a GP fit note.

You are eligible if your business meets both of the following requirements. Your business is:

  • UK based
  • small or medium-sized and employs fewer than 250 employees as of 28 February 2020

Claim back Statutory Sick Pay paid to employees due to coronavirus (COVID‑19)

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

If you are a small to medium-sized business (SME) you may be able to apply for a temporary loan, overdraft, invoice finance and asset finance of up to £5 million, for up to 6 years.

You may also be eligible for Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender fees. The government will give lenders 80% guarantee on each loan (subject to pre-lender cap on claims).

Self-employed people are also eligible for Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.

You may be eligible for this scheme if you meet all of the following criteria:

  • your business is UK-based, with a turnover of no more than £45 million per year
  • you have a borrowing proposal which would be considered viable by the lender, if not for the current pandemic
  • you can self-certify that coronavirus (COVID‑19) has adversely impacted your business

Apply for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan

If your small to medium-sized business (SME) is affected by coronavirus, you may be able to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000 through a Bounce Back Loan scheme.

The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and for the first 12 months you will not have to pay any fees or interest, or make repayments.

You may be eligible for this scheme if your business:

  • has been negatively affected by coronavirus
  • was not an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ on 31 December 2019

This includes self-employed people.

Apply for a Coronavirus Bounce Back loan

Support for businesses paying tax: Time To Pay Service

If you cannot pay your tax bill on time because of coronavirus, you may be able to delay it without penalty using HMRC’s Time to Pay service.

You may be eligible if you are a UK business that:

  • pays tax to the UK government
  • has outstanding tax liabilities

If you cannot pay your tax bill on time

Apprenticeship Bonus

From August to January, any firm that hires a new young apprentice aged 16 to 24 will receive £2,000, while those that hire new apprentices aged 25 and over will be paid £1,500.

these payments will be in addition to the existing £1,000 incentive the government already provides for new 16 to 18 year-old apprentices, and those aged under 25 with an education, health and care plan where that applies.

It means that employers could receive up to £3,000 for hiring 16 to 18 year old apprentices from August to January.

Read more about the incentive here