With the announcements made over the weekend by the Prime Minister regarding the latest lockdown, the strategies provided by the Government for business have changed and we have summarised as follows:
- CORONAVIRUS JOB RETENTION SCHEME (CJRS) – this has now been extended. The current scheme was due to finish at the end of October 2020 but will now continue for at least another month following the conditions that were used in August 2020. Employers will be asked to cover National Insurance and employer pension contributions only. If you require any further help or assistance on this scheme please do not hesitate to contact us as soon as possible.
- EXTENSION OF BUSINESS SUPPORT GRANTS – businesses required to close will be eligible for grants issued by local authorities. Our advice is to contact them direct for more details and applications.
- MORTGAGE PAYMENT HOLIDAYS – this was due to end November 2020 but have now been extended. Our advice is to contact your lender for further details.
- SELF EMPLOYED INCOME SUPPORT SCHEME GRANT (SEISS) – The Self- Employment Income Support Scheme online application for the next grant will be available from 14 December 2020. From what has been announced over the weekend, this will remain at 40% although we are anticipating there may be an increase to this to bring the grant in line with the furlough scheme for the extent of the National Lockdown. We will e-mail round further updates when these become available following government announcements. Qualification for the SEISS remains the same as for the two previous grants, so if you claimed either of these you will remain eligible for the third. If you did not claim the first or second grant but met the eligibility criteria, you can still make an application for the third payment.
We also take this opportunity to remind you of the increasing number of scams and fraudulent activities which we are being reported to us especially as the lockdown continues . These scams come in the form of phone calls, emails and texts allegedly from HMRC or debt collection companies. HMRC only correspond by post and will never contact directly. If you do receive any of these calls please let us know in the first instance so we can check your records this end – you can then report the details of the call to HMRC by following the link below:
As always please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or queries, however small that you think they may be. Trust that you all remain positive over the next coming months and more importantly safe and well.