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COVID-19 – Business Support Measures

23rd March 2020

On Friday the Government announced further measures to help businesses during COVID-19. Whilst the measures are welcomed the details are still emerging and business owners are still not clear on how they access the additional funds and grants that are available to them.

As we await further information from the Chancellor, we thought it would be useful to recap on the two key measures and what business owners could be doing next.

Business Interruption Loan Scheme (BILS)
BILS has been set-up to support businesses financially via banks and other institutions, we still don’t have all of the details but the scheme will be live from Monday 23rd March. As a reminder the loans will be interest free for 12 months and designed to help businesses continue trading during COVID-19. As a first port of call please speak to TC to discuss the options available to you.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)
As a reminder under CJRS all employers can apply to HMRC for a grant to pay 80% of the wages of retained staff who are not working (known as “furlough”) up to a maximum of £2,500 per worker per month. This was announced on Friday but the Government portal won’t be live for 2-3 weeks and the grants are unlikely to be paid until the end of April so whilst this is a positive announcement there are no immediate steps you can take to apply. Details will be released over the coming days and we will keep you informed as we get them.

Next steps

As the grants under CJRS won’t arrive quickly, the focus this week should be on:

  • Ensuring you have the funds you need to continue trading via BILS so you can continue to fund your wage costs until the CJRS grant can potentially reimburse you at the end of April. Contact TC and we can talk you through the options available as they emerge.
  • Starting to discuss your payroll arrangements with your relationship manager at TC to ensure you are well placed to take full advantage of any CJRS grant available to you at the earliest opportunity.

TC Group is here to guide you through this challenging period. Contact us today to discuss the points raised in this email or any other concerns you have as a business owner, about your personal finances, or, as an employer now on 0330 088 7111.

Kind regards

TC Group