If you are a SME based in England, employing between 5 and 249 staff you may be eligible for a place on a fully funded 10 week online programme.
The Small Business Leadership Programme has been launched to support senior leader to enhance their business's resilience and recovery from the impact of COVID-19.
Find out more detail and apply from the link below

The online service to claim the third grant is now open.
If you are eligible you must make your claim on or before 29 January 2021.

To make a claim for the third grant your business must be:
-currently trading and be "impacted by reduced demand"
-or has been trading but the business is temporarily closed due to coronavirus.

You will also have to confirm:
-you intend to continue to trade
- you reasonably believe that the impact on your business will have a significant reduction in your profits due to reduced business activity, capacity, or demand or inability to trade due to coronavirus during the period 1 November 2020 to 31 January 2021

These conditions are more precisely worded than those for the previous grants.

The third taxable grant is worth 80% of your average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months' worth of profits , capped at £7,500.

It will be subject to Income Tax and self-employed National Insurance and must be reported on your 2020 to 2021 Self Assessment tax return.

For more details of the eligibility criteria and how to claim please click on the link below:

If you pay business rates and have had to close your business between 5 November and 2 December 2020 due to lockdown, you may be eligible for a cash grant from your local council.

Click on the link below for more details

Under the new extended CJR Scheme claims for the prior month will have to be made by the 14th of the following month ie Claims up to 30 November have to be claimed by 14 December.
However claims can be made in advance, with the new claim portal opening at 8am on 11 November.

On 5th November the Chancellor announced further changes to the government's Covid-19 support packages:

-CJRS will be extended until the end of March 2021, with the Government paying 80% of employees usual wages for hours not worked , up to a cap of £2,500 a month. The employer will have to find employers NIC & pension

- Job Retention bonus will no longer be paid in Feb 2021

-SEISS grant increased to 80% of profits up to a maximum of £7,500-but only for those who were previously eligible

Following the announcement of a new month long lockdown and the extension of the furlough scheme for employers and employees HMRC have just announced changes to the Self Employment Support Scheme ( SEISS).

If eligible, you will now receive an increased 80% of your average trading profits for November, with 40% of trading profits for December and January.

This equates to a grant of 55% of trading profits with a maximum grant of £5,160.

The trading profits used to calculated the grant are the same as were used for previous grants.

The claims window will now open at the end of November rather than the middle of December.

The link gives further details including eligibility provisions.

With the announcement of a month long lockdown from 5 November, the JSS scheme has now been put on the back burner with the existing furlough scheme (CRJS) being extended until 30 November.

The extension will have similar conditions as those that applied in August 2020.

It will pay 80% of the employers current wages for time not worked, up to £2,500 per month. The employer will have to pay all of the employer's NIC and pension contributions.
The employer can also top up to the employees furlough pay if they wish.

Employees who were on the payroll at 30 October 2020 will qualify, they do not have to have been included in an earlier claim, but they must have been paid by the employer and that pay reported on an RTI return before midnight on 30 October.

Flexible furlough will also be permitted, with a minimum period of at least 7 consecutive calendar days.

The minimum hours required for employees to work has been reduced from 33% to 20% and the employer contribution for no-worked hours has dropped from 33% to 5%

About 150,000 businesses in England, including hotels, restaurants, B&Bs and others who have been adversely affected by local restrictions, despite not being legally required to close, will be eligible for grants of up to £2,100 each month. The payments will be retrospective for any area which has been under these rules since august

The Chancellor has announced that the SEISS grant available from 1 November will now be doubled from the original announcement of 20% of previous earnings to 40%, to a maximum of £3,750 per month

The SEISS grant extension is for self-employed individuals who are currently eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and are actively continuing to trade, but are facing reduced demand due to coronavirus (COVID-19) from 1 November to the date to the claim.

The extension provides for two grants:
The first for three months from November 1 to 30 April, at 20% of average monthly profits for 3 months, capped at £1,875.
The second will cover the three month period from 1 Feb 202. The level of the second grant will be set by HMRC in due course.

The grants are subject to Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions.

Full details on how to claim will be announced in due course.

The new Job Support Scheme will open on 1 November 2020 and run for 6 months until April 2021.

The Government will pay a third of hours not worked up to a cap, with the employer also contributing a third. This will ensure employees earn a minimum of 77% of their normal wages, where the Government contribution has not been capped.

The employee must be working at least 33% of their usual hours.
• For the time worked, employees must be paid their normal contracted wage.
• For time not worked, the employee will be paid up to two-thirds of their usual
wage.

The grant will be claimed online and payable in arrears after the employee has been paid and the payment reported to HMRC.

From 1st August, employers can no longer claim back Employers National Insurance or Pension Contributions for those employees who are furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

If you were eligible for the first grant and can confirm to HMRC that your business has been adversely affected on or after 14 July 2020, you’ll be able to make a claim for a second and final grant from 17 August 2020.

You can make a claim for the second and final grant if you’re eligible, even if you did not make a claim for the first grant.

If your business recovers after you’ve claimed, your eligibility will not be affected. You must keep evidence to confirm your business was adversely affected at the time you made your claim.

HMRC have published more information on how to claim this bonus, including details on how to check if you’re eligible and what you need to do now to get ready to claim.

Employers will be able to claim a one-off payment of £1,000 for every employee they have previously received a grant for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and who remains continuously employed through to the end of Ja‌nu‌ar‌y 2021.

To be eligible, the employee must have received earnings in November, December and January, and must have been paid an average of at least £520 per month, and a total of at least £1,560 across the three months.

As the employer, you will be able to claim the bonus after you have filed PAYE information for Ja‌nu‌ar‌y 2021, and the bonus will be paid from Fe‌br‌ua‌ry 2021. More detailed guidance, including how you can claim the bonus online, will be available by the end of September.

A great resource for finding organisations offering grants to help respond to the challenges of Covid-19.

The list is constantly being updated and gives both UK-wide and regional funding available.

The Prince's Trust and NatWest Enterprise Relief fund is offering grants and guidance

To be eligible you need to be :

- 18-30 years old

- self employed or run your own business

- started business in last 4 years

- have no other source of income due to COVID-1

New rules were announced in March to enable workers to carry forward unused annual leave into the next two leave years.

Currently the rules state that most workers get a minimum of 28 days holiday, including bank holidays, which must be taken in the leave year, under a "Use it or Lose it" rule.

The new regulations will allow up to 4 weeks of unused leave to be carried forward into the next 2 leave years, giving more flexibility to employers on granting leave, at a time when it could leave them short-staffed due to COVID-19 and easing the requirements on business to ensure that workers take the statutory amount of annual leave in any one year.

95% of self-employed will be eligible for a taxable grant worth 80% of their profits, up to £2,500 a month, where their income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19.



You will be eligible if:

you are registered as self-employed

currently trading

get the majority of your income from self-employment

your trading profits are less than £50,000 per year, averaged out over 3 years

have filed your 2018-19 tax return

have lost trading profits due to COVID-19

​You cannot apply for this scheme yet.

​You will be contacted directly by HMRC, who will invite you to apply online if you are eligible.

Please watch out for scams-see our blog post.

The grant will paid directly into your bank account, in one installment

​Those who are late submitting their 2019 tax return have been given until 23 April 2020 to submit, to be eligible for the grant.

​More information on this and other help available to the self employed can be found here:

​

This involves employers placing their employees on furlough- in effect a temporary leave of absence where they do not work.

​The government will give employers who have to do this because of COVID-19, a grant to cover 80% of the employees' usual wage cost to a maximum of £2,500 per employee per month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance & minimum automatic enrollment pension contributions on that wage.

The scheme is open to all UK employers that had created and started a PAYE scheme on 28 February 2020, and have a UK bank account.

​Furloughed employees must have been on your PAYE payroll on 28 February.

To be eligible for the subsidy an employee cannot undertake ANY work for or on behalf of the business.

The employees wage will be subject to the normal tax & other deductions.

​Employers must pay their employee the lower of 80% of their regular wage or £2,500 per month.

An employer can choose to top this up, but are not obliged to under this scheme.

​Claims will be made through an online portal ( which is not yet live)

You can only submit one claim at least every 3 weeks. Claims can be backdated until 1 March.

​Any grant received will need to be included as income in the businesses calculation of taxable profits, with the employment costs deducted as normal.

​The scheme is initially for 3 months but may be extended.

​More detailed information can be found here:

​

Due to high demand HMRC have recently changed the number for their dedicated coronavirus helpline.
The number to call is 0800 024 1222
It is open 8am to 4pm Monday to Friday.

VAT payments due from 20 March to 30 June 2020 will be deferred. UK VAT registered businesses will not need to make those payments until March 2021.

If you normally pay by direct debit you should cancel this in sufficient time so that HMRC do not attempt to automatically collect it on receipt of your VAT return.