In this post we cover the furlough extension and other key support measures you need to know:
1. The latest changes to the furlough scheme
3. What the furlough extension means for the Job Support Scheme and Job Retention Bonus
5. Grants for businesses forced to close
7. More support for the self-employed
8. The self isolation £500 payment that may apply to your employees
Since August the furlough scheme was wound down with employers asked to increasingly share the cost, contributing 10% and then 20% to furlough pay. Another outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent national lockdown, followed by tier restrictions, saw this policy reversed.
As of Thursday 5 November 2020, the Government are paying 80% of wages up to £2,500 a month for furloughed staff. This means as an employer, you're only liable for the National Insurance and pension contributions of your employees.
New criteria saw the scheme open potentially to far more employees than previously, meaning those who missed out last time could now benefit.
Your employees qualify for furlough so long as they were employed through your PAYE payroll on 30 October 2020 by 23.59. The rules are as follows:
CJRS is extended until the end of 30 April 2021. It could be revisited to assess if employers should contribute more as the Chancellor stated in The Spectator recently that current levels of borrowing are unsustainable.
The Job Support Scheme (JSS) had been scheduled to replace CJRS from 1 November 2020.
The furlough extension means the JSS start date is now delayed indefinitely.
The Job Retention Bonus will not be paid in February 2021. The scheme offers businesses a payment of £1,000 per worker for existing staff and apprentices who are taken off of CJRS and brought back to work. Given CJRS won't end till late April means the government may look at similar measures after that date.
The Bounce Back Loan scheme has been extended until 31 January 2021. If you haven't done so already then you should act now and apply for a 100% state-backed (unsecured) loan worth between £2,000 to £50,000. It should be noted that the amount is capped at 25% of your total turnover but no interest is charged and repayments aren't made in the first 12 months. After that all banks charge a fixed annual interest of 2.5% with the loans lasting for 12 years.
Lenders will require you to book a background-check appointment. You can repay the loan early without incurring any penalties and in some cases you can part-repay or even overpay. If you haven't borrowed the maximum amount permitted then there is now the option to top up your Bounce Back Loan. This will be available from Monday 9 November 2020 and you can only use this option once.
However, MoneyWeek reports that banks in recent weeks have been making it harder for businesses to access these loans. There were 28 banks and finance providers that signed up to the government's Bounce Back Loans scheme. Unfortunately, some of these lenders stopped lending because they were overwhelmed by applications. Reports suggest some banks are even restricting applications to all but their existing customers.
In some cases, they're restricting this lending to businesses that were with them before the scheme was launched in May. This means if you can't get a Bounce Back Loan from your current bank, it could be challenging to secure it elsewhere. There is nothing to stop you looking to other banks but beware, some may offer you loans with conditions such as taking out an invoice finance facility. Furthermore some applications have taken up to 12 weeks to complete.
The message is clear; if you haven't done so already and you think you're eligible, apply now!
Businesses that were forced to close in England by the national lockdown could be eligible to receive grants of up to £3,000 per month under the Local Restriction Support Grant. Local authorities are to be given £1.1bn distributed on the basis of £20 per head, for one-off payments to enable them to support businesses.
Homeowners will continue to be able to take the option of a mortgage payment holiday to last up to 6 months. This was due to end on 31 October 2020 but has been extended.
If you've already started a mortgage holiday you can top up to 6 months without it being recorded on a credit file. Be warned however, interest will accrue during this period on what you owe.
Support for the self-employed will be increased for the latest national lockdown with £4.5bn of support from November 2020 to January 2021. The government will increase the grants from the current 40% to 80% of average trading profits for November.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is calculated over 3 months. This means that along with the 40% level of trading profits for December and January, the 3rd grant will cover 55% of trading profits up to £5,160.
Grants will also be paid faster than previously with the claims window opening at the end of November rather than the middle of December.
If your staff receive Universal Credit and other means-tested benefits and they're forced to self-isolate under the track and trace system then they could be eligible for the self isolation grant. Being at home and not able to work will result in them losing income meaning they can claim the payment of £500.
This came into effect from 28 September 2020 meaning it can be backdated. It applies to each period of self isolation qualifying employees are required to undertake and is administered through local authorities from 12 October 2020.
The content of this post was created on 03/11/2020 and updated on 21/12/2020.
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