Over the past week, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has put into place plans to support small businesses during the disruption caused by COVID-19.

Financial Support

The government has laid out numerous schemes for UK businesses who are facing financial hardships due to the outbreak.

Coronavirus Job Retention: All UK employers will be able to receive financial support to help pay employee wages who would have otherwise been laid off. HMRC will reimburse up to 80% of wages up to £2,500 per month.

Small business grant funding:  Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief.

Grant funding for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses: The Retail and Hospitality Grant scheme provides businesses in these sectors up to £25,000 per property.

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme: Small and medium-sized businesses will be supported by the government in securing bank loans and overdrafts. The government will provide bank lenders with a free 80% guarantee on loans.

Business rates: The Small Business Grant scheme will provide funding to local authorities to support small businesses who pay little or no business rates. This will give those eligible a £10,000 grant to help meet ongoing business costs.

Sick pay

There will be a Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) relief package for SMEs. Allowing SMEs who do give sick pay to  employees to re-claim this. This refund will cover up to two weeks SSP per employee who has been off work due to COVID-19. 

The SSP relief package is only eligible for SMEs with fewer than 250 employees as of 28 February 2020.

Tax

HMRC Time to Pay: All business and self-employed people who are in financial hardship and with outstanding tax can apply for help with HMRC’s Time To Pay service. These arrangements will allow installments to be paid and will be decided on a case to case basis.

Insurance

Businesses who are affected by the government-ordered closure on March 17th 2020 (pubs, restaurants, cafes etc)  and have cover for pandemics should be covered. However, individual insurance policies differ and all businesses should check the terms and conditions with their providers.

What bOnline is doing

bOnline is closely monitoring the developments of COVID-19. Our employees are able to work securely and remotely from home and we expect no impact on our service.

If your query is not urgent, it is advised to contact us via email (customerservice@bonline.com) instead of by phone.

Resources

For more information, we urge you to visit the verified government website to find out more about these schemes, how to apply and eligibility requirements.

We advise all our small business customers to tune into the Prime Minister’s daily briefings on the ongoing crisis. The BBC news site provides a live feed of all points raised.