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Neston Accountant Advises on Current Help for Business

Neston-based Chartered Certified Accountant Lucy Brooks has been looking into some of the current information available to help businesses during the Covid-19 crisis.

A couple of clients contacted me yesterday afternoon about Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for sickness absence due to the coronavirus and also grants for small businesses.

The gov.uk website includes guidance about the support available for businesses and this was last updated on 18 March 2020, here.

The section about sick pay says that the SSP refund will cover up to 2 weeks' SSP per eligible employee who has been off work because of COVID-19 and that the government will work with employers over the coming months to set up the repayment mechanism as soon as possible. In the past, when SSP could be reclaimed this was dealt with via the payroll, by reducing the amount of PAYE & NI due to HMRC. It will be interesting to see what approach is taken this time.

In the section about support for businesses who pay little or no business rates, the one-off grant of £10,000 is mentioned. This has been updated today, the previous guidance dated 10 March 2020 referred to a one-off grant of £3,000. The guidance goes on to say that if the business is eligible, you will be contacted by your local authority and you do not need to apply. Funding for the scheme will be provided to local authorities by the government in early April.

Details of support for businesses that pay business rates, including those in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors is also included.

The web link above is one of a number documents containing guidance for employers, employees and businesses on the gov.uk website

I thought this information may be helpful to other local businesses and individuals and would recommend that the weblinks are reviewed regularly for further updates.

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