With lots of different information and advice swirling around at the moment it can be quite confusing for businesses to know where to look. We wanted to pull together some of the key information and put it all in one place to make things a little easier for you in this stressful time:
- HMRC – Time to Pay – Time to Pay and Tax Defferals – To help a lot businesses who have outstanding tax that needs paying, HMRC are offering support and bespoke Time to Pay options and Tax Deferrals. They have set up a dedicated helpline for businesses to get in touch with them on - 0800 0159 559
- CBILS - The British Business Bank will deliver a new and temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which will launch in the coming weeks, to help businesses access bank lending and overdrafts. As part of this, the government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on eligible loans of up to £5m in value to increase lender confidence in providing finance to SMEs. CBILS is set to come in on Monday 23rd March. We will then be able to provide more information on how we can help you get access to these funds. https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/coronavirus-business-interruption-loan-scheme-cbils/
- Government grants - Additional funding will be provided to local authorities to support small businesses that already pay little orb no Business Rates due to the Small Business Rate Relief (SBBR); this will provide a one-off grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses. Again this is set to come in on Monday 23rd March.
- Support for self-employed and freelancers – We know that a lot of freelancers and self-employed people have been extremely worried during this time about their businesses and what will happen to them if we have to go into lockdown. The government have said that they can now claim Universal Credits.https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-support-for-employees-benefit-claimants-and-businesses
- Helpline – The COVID-19 Business Finance Helpline is still running for businesses who want to get in touch with us at ABL Business and find out what finance is available to them and how they can get access to it. Call 0333 003 7685
We also want to share the link to the government website, and the guidance to businesses page. This page has the latest information from the government on what businesses can do. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses#gcslocal
This is uncertain times for many businesses but we are hoping that we can all pull through and help each other. The amount of support for each other we have already seen is incredible.