Available Covid-19 Business Support

The Fund will offer either:

• £10,000 grants for small businesses in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme or Rural Relief or businesses who qualify for Small Business Bonus Scheme but instead are in receipt of Nursery Relief, Disabled Relief, Business Growth Accelerator Relief, Fresh Start Relief, Discretionary Sports Relief, Enterprise Areas relief, or Charitable Rate Relief, or;

• £25,000 grants for hospitality, leisure and retail properties with a rateable value between £18,001 and £50,999.

How to Apply: Apply through your Local Authority. For Inverclyde based businesses, the application form and information sheet, providing full details of eligibility can be downloaded here.

Application timeline: The local authority administering the grant will aim to make payment of an approved application within 10 working days of receiving a completed application, however, it will take longer if they need to contact you for further information.

Further Information: As of 5th May, the fund has been updated to now include:

Multiple retail, hospitality or leisure properties

From 5 May 2020, if you have multiple properties and are not eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme, you may still be eligible for a Small Business Support Grant for any retail, hospitality or leisure properties with a rateable value up to £18,000 each.  All of your properties must have a combined rateable value of between £35,001 and £51,000.

Multiple properties

From 5 May 2020, if you have more than one property, you can apply for a grant for each eligible property.

This means you may be able to get a £10,000 or £25,000 grant for one property. Then each additional property may be eligible for a Small Business Support Grant of £7,500, or a Retail, Hospitality, Leisure Support Grant of £18,500.

For multiple properties you need to make a separate application for each eligible property.

Self-catering accommodation and caravans

Self-catering accommodation and caravans are eligible for these grants if they:

• are a primary source of income for the ratepayer (one third or more), and
• were let out for 140 days or more in financial year 2019-20

More information, including the types of business who qualify, can be found at https://www.mygov.scot/non-domestic-rates-coronavirus/

Who is eligible?:  If you became self-employed in Inverclyde on or after 6 April 2019 and your business has seen a downturn since COVID19, or you have had to temporarily stop trading, you may be eligible for the Scottish Government Newly Self Employed Hardship Fund.

Amount of support available: The grant available is £2,000. One grant is payable per eligible self-employed person

How to Apply: Apply through your Local Authority. For Inverclyde based businesses, the application form and information sheet, providing full details of eligibility can be downloaded here.

If you would like help to complete the application, please contact Inverclyde Business Gateway on 778465 or email via the website at www.bgateway.com/local-offices/inverclyde/contact-us.

Application timeline: The local authority administering the grant will aim to make payment of an approved application within 10 working days of receiving a completed application, however, it will take longer if they need to contact you for further information.

Further Information: If you do receive the grant, you can continue to trade or take up other employment.

For a further breakdown and information on the grant see here.

The UK Job Retention Scheme (furlough scheme) which pays 80% of wages of workers on leave because of coronavirus has been extended by a further four months to October (backdated from 19 March). The UK Government will ask companies to "start sharing" the cost of the scheme from August.

Instead of making employees redundant, employers can furlough employees and apply for a grant that covers:

• 80% of their usual monthly wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus
• the associated Employer National Insurance contributions, and
• pension contributions (up to the level of the minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contribution) on that subsidised furlough pay.

The furlough scheme cut-off date has been extended to 19 March 2020. This means thousands more employees will able to receive support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. (15 April 2020)

Who is eligible?
You can check if you can claim for support here. Employers with employees on the payroll at 19 March 2020 who have subsequently put them on furlough can make a claim.

How do I apply?

Make your claim through the UK Government site here.

Further Information

Read the step by step guide to the scheme for employers here .

The UK Government will support self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19.

Grants will not be available until June. The HMRC will identify eligible taxpayers and contact them directly with guidance on how to apply.

Further guidance can be found on this scheme at the Government website here.

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for the scheme you must meet all of  the criteria below:

• Be self-employed or a member of partnership
• Have lost trading/partnership trading profits due to COVID-19
• File a tax return for 2018-19 as self-employed or a member of a trading partnership. Those who have not yet filed for 2018-19 will have an additional 4 weeks from this announcement to do so
• Have traded in 2019-20; be currently trading at the point of application (or would be except for COVID 19) and intend to continue to trade in the tax year 2020 to 2021
• Have trading profits of less than £50,000 and more than half of your total income come from self-employment. This can be with reference to at least one of the following conditions:
  • Your trading profits and total income in 2018/19

What can I claim?

• The scheme will provide a grant to self-employed individuals or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month
• HMRC will use the average profits from tax returns in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 to calculate the size of the grant
• The scheme will be open to those where the majority of their income comes from self-employment and who have profits of less than £50,000
• The scheme will be open for an initial three months with people able to make their first claim by the beginning of June

How Do I apply for the grant?

Individuals should not contact HMRC now. HMRC will use existing information to check potential eligibility and invite applications once the scheme is operational. HMRC will then pay the grant directly to eligible claimants’ bank account.

HMRC is urgently working to deliver the scheme. Grants are expected to start to be paid out by beginning of June 2020. For eligible individuals who have not submitted their Income Tax Self-Assessment tax return for 2018-19, they must do so by 23 April 2020 to file their returns and therefore become eligible for this scheme

Further Information

Please Note: When invited to apply, you will access this scheme only through the GOV.UK. If someone texts, calls or emails claiming to be from HMRC, saying that you can claim financial help or are owed a tax refund, and asks you to click on a link or to give information such as your name, credit card or bank details, it is a scam.

Small and medium-sized businesses affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) can apply for a loan of up to £50,000 which will be guaranteed by the UK Government.

The scheme has been designed to ensure that small firms, who need a vital cash injection to keep operating, can get finance in a matter of days:

• no forward-looking tests of business viability
• simple eligibility criteria
• a quick, standard form
• most firms should receive the loan within 24 hours of approval
• the UK Government will pay the interest for the first 12 months
• the UK Government will guarantee 100% of the loan
• it will be capped at £50,000

Who is eligible?

You can apply for a loan if your business:

• is based in the UK
• was established before 1 March 2020
• has been adversely impacted by the coronavirus

If your business was classed as a business in difficulty on 31 December 2019 you’ll need to confirm that you’re complying with additional state aid restrictions.

How do I apply

Apply here

Further information

The length of the loan is 6 years, but you can repay early without paying a fee. No repayments will be due during the first 12 months.