Where to head for financial support

The Coronavirus Pandemic is presenting numerous challenges for businesses; firstly, and most importantly the bearing on health and wellbeing and secondly the financial impact.

To help you navigate the vast amount of information available, we’ve taken some time to call out a few of the useful links and resources recently shared on our Cox Automotive website.

We hope that the information below provides some clarity on the financial support available to your business and specifically how the job retention scheme works. We are encouraging our customers to assess all options available to them in order to ensure that they are in the best possible position to quickly ‘pick back up’ once this situation passes.

Government support for businesses

The gov.uk website has helpfully set out The Chancellor’s measures which are aimed at supporting businesses through this period of disruption.

To name but a few, their measures include:

• A Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme;
• Deferring VAT and Self-Assessment payments;
• A Self-employment Income Support Scheme;
• A Statutory Sick Pay relief package for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs);
• Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief;
• Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000;
• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank.

If you feel your business could benefit, read more here.

Furloughing need to knows

Again, the Government website provides tones of information around furloughing (link below), however Martin Lewis (Money Saving Expert) summarises it quite simply in his need-to-knows for employees and small businesses:

1. Furloughing means an employee’s job is put on standby. If employees were on the payroll on the 28th February, they can be furloughed. This means that they do not work, however they get paid by the employer using money provided by the government. Payments can be backdated to the 1st March 2020;
2. It is a grant not a loan. The money you receive to pay furloughed staff does not need repaying;
3. All core staff costs are covered. The government will pay for 80% of a furloughed employee’s salary up to £2,500 a month – plus the employer’s national insurance and minimum pension contribution;
4. Employers can top the furloughed employee’s salary up to 100%, but they don’t need to;
5. Not all employees need to be furloughed. Some can keep working while others are furloughed;
6. Furloughing can be from 3 weeks to 4 months (though the scheme could be lengthened);
7. You can furlough those shielding in line with public health guidelines. If people are in the vulnerable category, so have to stay at home, and can’t work from home, they can be furloughed;
8. Furloughing is better for employees than redundancy or unpaid leave. To help ACAS has produced templates you can use here;
9. In most cases furloughing is better than cutting hours. It may be better to furlough some staff and keep others on full time rather than halving everyone’s hours.
10. The furlough grant will come at the end of April – employers with cash flow struggles can talk to their teams. Businesses may struggle with cashflow to cover salaries before the payment is made. If so, a discussion about not paying the salary in full until the payment arrives may help everyone – if it enables a business to furlough rather than make redundant.

Government website link: Click here

Money Saving Expert link: Click here

For further links, guidance and support you can view our useful resources hub by clicking here.  

We truly believe that the best way to get through these weeks and months is by coming together as an automotive community.

Stay Safe.
NextGear Capital