First Batch of Covid-19 Business Support Grant Payments Received
Business Round-Up – 6 April 2020
06/04/2020
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10/04/2020First Batch of Covid-19 Business Support Grant Payments Received
Inverclyde Council
Inverclyde Council have today confirmed that the first batch of payments of the Scottish Government Coronavirus Business Support Fund in Inverclyde have now been processed, as their rates department work through the hundreds of applications received so far.
The Chief Financial Officer at Inverclyde Council, Alan Puckrin, confirmed to Inverclyde Chamber of Commerce that the first of the payments have been made this week and resources have been allocated to create a multi-departmental team at the Council who are working their way through the applications.
It has also been confirmed that there is a significant backlog to be worked through due to guidance on the scheme not being received by the Council until days after it was announced. This resulted in approximately 400 applications being received before the appropriate procedures were in place to be able to deliver the process.
Mr Puckrin stated:
“The first payments have been made this week and I expect these to increase as the team get more comfortable with the process which had to be delivered from a standing start with virtually no notice.”
The target timescale to process the payments is within 10 working days of a fully completed application but, to date well over 66% reviewed required more information or evidence, thus causing some further delays.
An automatic e-mail response acknowledging receipt of the application was not previously set up but has been put in place today to give applicants confirmation that their applications has been received.
Once an application has been approved, applicants will also received an email from the rates department advising that their grant application has been approved, that a BACS payment has been sent to their bank and that it could take up to 5 working days to reach their account.
Applications for the grant will remain open until 31 March 2021. The Application Form and more information on how to apply can be downloaded here.
5 Comments
Sadly communicating through the chamber is a poor show!! I applied the day the form went live and there has been nothing since, no confirmation no contact at all. It is not being dealt with fairly across the board as some are being emailed confirmation and others not, long before this post was shared! Which is not a fair code of conduct, there are 100’s of businesses in inverclyde desperate for even woke form of communication leaving them concerned and anxiety rising because some have been contacted and others have been paid already…
Hi Trishy,
I have emailed you over some further information, however, just to confirm, we here at Inverclyde Chamber of Commerce are not involved in administering the grant and have nothing to do with the grant itself or the application process. The grant is a Scottish Government Grant which is being administered by each local authority, in this case by Inverclyde Council.
The same issues you had raised were also noted by some of our members and as such we wrote to the Council in order to get an update and push them to improve the process. The above news story was their response.
I am sorry you have had such a difficult time and you are not alone as I have heard from many other businesses in your same position. Given the Council’s response, we are hopeful that this process will improve as time goes on and your grant will be received in due course.
Please feel free to visit our Covid-19 Advice hub for links to financial guides and other useful resources.
Thanks so much Rachel, in no way was I aiming my annoyance at the Chamber. Thank you for helping them see the need to change the process xx
How can I apply
Hi Shaun,
Full details on how to apply and how the grant works are available in our original story here: https://inverclydechamber.co.uk/1-billion-business-support-fund-opens/
You can also download an application form which contains full instructions here: https://inverclydechamber.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CORONAVIRUS-Fund-Application-Form-Inverclyde-Council-march-2020-8.pdf