Business update as at 2nd November 2020

Update as at 2nd November 2020

With an England wide lockdown upon us again from Thursday 5 November 2020 and many businesses having to shut and others having their productivity disrupted it is important to understand the additional support being offered by the government and specifically the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, or “Furlough Scheme” as many of us know it. Understanding your options will help you plan for the difficult weeks ahead.

Furlough Extension
The furlough scheme, originally due to end on 31 October 2020, is now to be extended into December and will be enhanced in its offering compared to September and October.

The extended scheme:

  • is open to employers irrespective of whether they have previously been used the scheme before;
  • can be used for all employees, even those not previously furloughed;
  • will allow for flexibility if an employee only works a percentage of their usual hours but will also cover all hours if they are fully furloughed;
  • will see the government contribute wages equivalent to 80% of unworked hours, capped at £2,500 per month;
  • will see the employers pay any worked hours, all employer’s national insurance and pension contributions and any top-up they wish to contribute.

To be eligible, an employee must have been included on a payroll run and thus an RTI submission to HMRC on or before 30 October 2020.

The new Job Support Scheme, scheduled to commence on 1 November 2020 has been postponed until after the extended furlough ends, be that 2 December 2010 when the lockdown is scheduled to end or a later date should lockdown be extended further.

Full details for when a claim can be made through an updated claims service are yet to be issued

Other Support
Other support available to businesses and individuals impacted by the latest lockdown restrictions are:

  • Self-employed Income Support Scheme
    The government recently announced an enhancement to this scheme seeing self-employed individuals continuing to be impacted by coronavirus able to be claim 40% of their average monthly profits from 2019/20 for 3 months.  This has as yet net not been revisited since the lockdown announcement;
  • Grants for businesses forced to close
    These will be payable based on rateable values used for business rates where a business is legally forced to close under lockdown regulations as follows: 

    • Rateable value less than £15,000 – £1,334 per month;
    • Rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000 – £2,000 per month;
    • Rateable value of £51,000 or over – £3,000 per month;
  • Extension of mortgage holidays
    Mortgage holidays were due to end on 31 October 2020.  More details are due to follow this week but availability of these holidays is to be extended for six months both to those who have previously taken a holiday and those that haven’t. These holidays have no impact on credit files for individuals.

For the most up-to-date info please visit www.gov.uk