These are very challenging times for all. Our primary concern is for the health and welfare of you and your families. The latest measures will undoubtedly save lives, but we understand that people will also be very concerned about the effect on their finances.
We want to let you know that we are on hand to help in any way we can. During this uncertain period there will be a need to look at budgeting for many. This could be:
- Suspending or cancelling contributions to pensions and investments
- Temporarily adjusting pension or investment income
- Reviewing payments to insurance companies
- General income and expenditure analysis
- Reducing utilities and bills
- Reviewing mortgage costs (including three month mortgage deferment)
If you wish to speak to us about these or any other issues please get in touch with us, but we do ask that you are patient as we are receiving higher than usual call volumes and it will take a little longer than usual to respond.
If you are considering taking a mortgage break please get in touch with us first. We have received more details from lenders on the process and long term implications of using this scheme and can assist you in making the correct decision at the correct time.
In addition, the government have implemented huge stimulus measures to help businesses and individuals through this crisis. Some of the finer details on the published measures are still a bit vague, so we would recommend checking the following link regularly to keep up to date.
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Some of the main financial actions are:
- Statutory Sick Pay payable from the first day you’re self-isolating and cannot work. This will begin from 13 March.
- Enhanced Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit rules for individuals including self employed who cannot work through either sickness, self-isolation or shut down actions.
- Guarantee pay if you are temporarily laid off or have reduced hours.
- Businesses with fewer than 250 employees can reclaim the cost of providing Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to employees off work due to the coronavirus.
- Scaling up of HMRC’s “Time to Pay” service, including a new helpline so businesses and the self-employed can arrange to defer VAT and income tax payments. We would recommend talking to HMRC before paying any tax bills to see how they can assist to defer and spread these payments.
- All retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England will receive a 100% business rates holiday for the next 12 months – this will be administered by councils we believe.
- Grants to small businesses eligible for Small Business Rate Relief of £10,000 – this is to be administered by councils we believe also.
- Additional £25,000 grants to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses operating from premises, with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000 – again to be administered by councils.
- Loans available from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme up to £5 million, the first 6 months of that finance is interest free. You should speak to your bank manager or bank in the first instance regarding this.
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for all UK employers to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis.
Once again we wish you all the best over the coming weeks and hope to be able to assist you as much as possible.
The Robson Team