For businesses that have incurred hardships as a result of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), the UK government offers much-needed financial support. There are initiatives available to all sizes of businesses to help survive this tough time.
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As well as impacting peoples’ physical and mental health, the pandemic is also having a big impact on business operations. Staying at home is a measure taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus cases; however, it has significantly slowed down many businesses.
Thankfully, to help protect jobs, help those who have been laid off, and ease the stress for businesses with cash flow problems, the government has introduced many important financial initiatives for businesses of all sizes.
The Furlough Scheme
If you are unable to maintain your current staff due to coronavirus, you can furlough employees and claim to cover wages for those workers. If they cannot work for one of many reasons, such as caring for children who are not in school because of COVID-19, as an employer you can apply for staff to get a percentage of their usual wage.
Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, you can apply for a grant that covers 80% of their normal monthly wage, with a cap of £2,500 per month. On that wage, employees also receive certain benefits: the Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions.
This scheme, which began March 1st, covers three months but can be longer if businesses need it. If your small to large business has not yet claimed this grant, you can still do so.
You can claim for the temporary layoff of employees on your PAYE payroll until and including February 28th. New hires after the 28th do not qualify for the furlough and, thus, cannot be claimed under this initiative.
Any type of employment contract is applicable, such as part-time, full-time, flexible, zero-hour, and agency contracts. Foreign nationals also can be furloughed.
Other Forms of Government Assistance
Loans, cash grants, and tax relief options are also available to businesses of all sizes to help navigate through the coronavirus outbreak.
For example, the UK government supports businesses by deferring VAT payments temporarily. For the Valued Added Tax payments due between March 30th and June 30th, you can defer payment for three months.
Also deferrable is a self-assessment payment. Rather than paying it on by July 31st, your business can pay it in January 2021, if unable to do so sooner because of COVID-19.
Financial support also exists for businesses currently paying sick pay to staff who were sick from March 13th onward. The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme applies to current and former employees.
For businesses in retail, hospitality, and leisure industries, cash grants are available for as much as £25,000 per property. That maximum value applies to a rateable property value of more than £15,000 and less than £51,000. If your property value is £15,000 or less, then the grant is £10,000.
Eligible businesses for the above-noted cash grant can contact their local authorities with questions. To be approved, your business must be based in England.
More Support
The above list is not exhaustive. See the full list of government business support to find out what is available to your business during the coronavirus outbreak.
As well, the Bank of England offers several measures for business continuity and to help prevent long-term economic harm due to COVID-19. For example, they have cut their interest rates to 0.1% for cheaper business loans.
They also are working alongside the HM Treasury to support large companies by providing them with cash to cover their corporate debt. This money can help your big business to pay employee wages, as well as to pay suppliers. Find online all of the Bank of England financial measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Helping You at JVR Consultancy
Our team at JVR Consultancy is available to help you through this difficult time. As well as providing information about financial initiatives available to businesses of all sizes in the UK, we also continue to provide a range of service offerings.
Reach out to us for compliance support with any of our compliance services, such as Achilles BuildingConfidence, UVDB, ISO, RISQ or GDPR. For our Gap Analysis consultations, we currently offer this service remotely. All of our employees are working from home with the latest technologies, using secure protocols.
During this uncertain economic time, our staff are here to support you. Count on the JVR experts to help prepare your business for future opportunities following COVID-19. Contact us today to start the process.
Frequently Asked Questions from our Customers
Yes we can, we can assist you with any of the accreditation featured on our website. We have a 100% record of securing any of the accreditation in the first audit for all our customers for the last 13 years.
More to the point, I ask clients how quickly can you start. We can have a consultant working on your accreditation within the hour if you are ready. The only things that take time are the audit dates, these are issued to the client by the certification body so it is out of our control.
This depends on how much the client has in place already. The more they have, the easier it becomes to work on their accreditation. The gap analysis that we carry out is free of charge and afterwards will give you an exact fixed price.
The fixed price will include the following –
- Carry out all the work ( creating documents & processes tailored to your company )
- Attend the audit ( as your expert consultant ) or make the desktop submission.
- Make any corrections that the auditor may highlight to ensure that you obtain your accreditation the first audit.
Initially, we need to talk to you to carry out the free gap analysis. Afterwards, we would require you to forward all the relevant documents. After that, we can complete the work with the minimum of your input, leaving you to concentrate on doing what you do best for the company.
Yes! Let us Manage your Accreditations with Ongoing Support and Maintenance. With us managing your accreditations, your team can then focus on business growth and development. This gives you peace of mind knowing your compliance is being routinely managed by professionals. Ongoing support and maintenance avoids panic in your business when suddenly faced with an audit, knowing at all times you are well prepared.
Achieve Accreditation and Compliance with JVR
JVR Consultancy was formed in the year 2008 and their head office is based in Windsor and Maidenhead. We noticed that there was a gap in the market, for companies who work in the construction, rail, utilities, oil and gas sector who were not fully supported in the way that they could be when it came to industry compliance and certification. That is why our highly experienced team of compliance consultants can serve these sectors by providing over 135 years of combined experience with all compliance needs. In short, you won’t find anyone else who cares as much, or who tries as hard as we do.
Speak with one of our experienced consultants. At JVR, we know that time is precious, and you want the answers to your questions quickly, especially during an audit!. Once we speak with you for the first time over the phone, we need around 10 minutes to fully evaluate which accreditation you need support with and a brief introduction into you and your company.
Managing Director at JVR Consultancy, Steven Sandhu, is passionate and committed to supporting his clients within their chosen Compliance accreditation. With over 15 years of experience across multiple compliance industries, Steven prides himself on delivering 100% accreditation success for his clients, mixed with a passion for providing excellence by understanding the goals and the needs of his clients’ businesses. All this, combined with his strong breadth of skills and knowledge by routinely researching industry requirements changes and introducing new regulated requirements
Our consultants have an extensive level of experience in developing solutions and offering guidance for our clients and their businesses. We offer a free GAP analysis, which will help to assess the difference between your business performance and your goals. It’s a fantastic way for you to find out if your business needs are met, and if they aren’t, it gives you the insight and confidence you need to deliver improvement before an audit. Learning more about what is Gap Analysis and how will the report benefit you.
With a success rate of 100% and a team who will go above and beyond to make sure that your expectations are met, you know that you can trust in us to provide you with the knowledge, resources and expertise you need to make a difference. Contact us today to find out more.
To identify the objectives and benefits that are needed to achieve your desired level of compliance, we offer a FREE, no-obligation Gap Analysis. Our analysis will assess your current systems and documentation. Just start your journey by filling in the form below, and one of our specialists will contact you (typically within one working day) to make arrangements.
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