Unsure if your agency can claim business support? This tool should help…

If there are agents still uncertain as to whether their company or themselves as individuals are claiming the maximum business support, a new tool may be useful.

The finder tool on the official Gov.UK website will ask business owners to fill out a simple online questionnaire, and which will then direct them to a list of all the financial support they may be eligible for.

There has been high-profile publicity for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and in particular payments for furloughed staff including agency employees, but the entirety of the government schemes are:

- £330 billion of loans and guarantees for businesses;

- 80 per cent of the wages of furloughed workers, up to £2,500 per month;

- deferred the next quarter of VAT payments for firms, until the end of June;

- £20 billion in tax relief and cash grants to help businesses with cash flow;

- new Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes; 

- offer to cover the cost of statutory sick pay;

- temporary removal of eligible properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sector from business rates;

- self-employment Income Support Scheme, offering a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 a month;

- deferred Self Assessment payments due in July 2020 until January 31 2021;

- companies required to hold AGMs to do so flexibly, which may include postponing them or holding them online;

- suspended wrongful trading provisions for company directors to remove the threat of personal liability during the pandemic; and

- a three month extension for filing accounts to businesses hit by Coronavirus.

You can find the new tool here.