Coronavirus and government guidance

Coronavirus and government guidance

Financial Support and Grants in Wales

Development Bank of Wales
The Welsh Government and the Development Bank of Wales have announced the £100m Covid-19 Wales Business Loan Scheme to support businesses affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. The Scheme will be available from the Development Bank of Wales for a limited period. It is intended to provide support to businesses who are experiencing cashflow difficulties as a result of the pandemic.

The loan scheme will work alongside the UK wide Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, other Welsh Government and UK Government support offers, providing more vital options for Welsh businesses. Loans of between £5,000 and £250,000 are available to businesses who have been trading longer than 2 years and can demonstrate that they were able to service that level of debt before the outbreak.

Fund Details:
• £100m fund
• loans between £5,000 to £250,000, maximum loan levels apply
• 12 month capital and interest repayment holiday
• no arrangement or monitoring fees
• 2% interest fixed for 6 years (includes the 12 month holiday)

Details of the fund, eligibility and application process can be found on the Development Bank of Wales’s website

Economic Resilience Fund
Businesses can also benefit from a £400 million emergency pot providing:

• grants of £10,000 for micro-businesses employing up to nine people. This includes sole traders employing staff. Qualifying businesses will be able to apply by mid-April.
• grants of up to £100,000 for small and medium sized firms with between 10 and 249 employees. Qualifying businesses will be able to apply by mid-April.
• support for larger Welsh companies, which are of critical social or economic importance to Wales. This element will be open to qualifying businesses within the next two weeks.

Details of the application process and eligibility are being finalised and will be published shortly.

Welsh Government Business Grants
The Welsh Government has announced a £1.4bn support package for all businesses listed on the business rates register, covering Business Rate Relief and Business Grants

The Business Grant has 2 different components.

Grant 1 : For retail, leisure and hospitality businesses in Wales, a grant of £25,000 will be offered for businesses in these sectors with a rateable value of between £12,001 and £51,000.

Grant 2 : For all other sectors the Welsh Government package also provides a £10,000 grant to all businesses eligible for Small Business Rates Relief with a rateable value of £12,000 or less.

Local authorities are administering these two grants in Wales. To enable quick and efficient payments, you will need to confirm some details with your local authority.
For more information click here. Please do not try to call your local authority. The information you need will be available on-line.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all UK employers will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis, all UK businesses are eligible.

To access the scheme businesses will need to:
  • designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers,’ and notify your employees of this change - changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation
  • submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings through a new online portal, this portal is not yet in place and we will publish details as soon as they are available (HMRC will set out further details on the information required)
HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. HMRC are working urgently to set up a system for reimbursement. Existing systems are not set up to facilitate payments to employers.

For more informantion on how to claim for your employees' wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme  click here

Business Interruption Loan Scheme
A new temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, covering a variety of different products such as loans, overdraft, invoice finance and asset finance, delivered by the British Business Bank, has launched on the 23 March to support primarily small and medium sized businesses to access bank lending and overdrafts. The government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on each loan (subject to a per-lender cap on claims) to give lenders further confidence in continuing to provide finance to SMEs. The government will not charge businesses or banks for this guarantee, and the Scheme will support loans of up to £5 million in value. Businesses can access the first 12 months of that finance interest free, as government will cover the first 12 months of interest payments. 


Protection for business who miss rent payments
Commercial tenants who cannot pay their rent because of coronavirus will be protected from eviction, the UK government has announced. These measures will mean no business will be forced out of their premises if they miss a payment in the next 3 months. Please visit the GOV.UK website for further information

Statutory Sick Pay Support
The UK Government is bringing forward legislation to allow small and medium-sized businesses and employers to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness absence due to coronavirus. The eligibility criteria for the scheme will be as follows:

  • this refund will cover up to two weeks’ SSP per eligible employee who has been off work because of COVID-19 
  • employers with fewer than 250 employees will be eligible - the size of an employer will be determined by the number of people they employed as of 28 February 2020
  • employers will be able to reclaim expenditure for any employee who has claimed SSP (according to the new eligibility criteria) as a result of COVID-19
  • employers should maintain records of staff absences and payments of SSP, but employees will not need to provide a GP fit note
  • the eligible period for the scheme will commence the day after the regulations on the extension of Statutory Sick Pay to those staying at home comes into force
  • the government will work with employers over the coming months to set up the repayment mechanism for employers as soon as possible
 

Coronavirus - Government guidance 

The government has issued guidance that strongly advises people who are at a higher risk of catching coronavirus (‘vulnerable people’) to take strict social distancing measures. Employers must be especially careful and take extra steps for anyone in their workforce who is in a vulnerable group. This guidance can be found at: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus

Guidance for employers and businesses on coronavirus (COVID-19) 

What you need to know
    • businesses and workplaces should encourage their employees to work at home, wherever possible
    • if someone becomes unwell in the workplace with a new, continuous cough or a high temperature, they should be sent home and advised to follow the advice to stay at home
    • employees should be reminded to wash their hands for 20 seconds more frequently and catch coughs and sneezes in tissues
    • frequently clean and disinfect objects and surfaces that are touched regularly, using your standard cleaning products
    • employees will need your support to adhere to the recommendation to stay at home to reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) to others
    • those who follow advice to stay at home will be eligible for statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first day of their absence from work
    • employers should use their discretion concerning the need for medical evidence for certification for employees who are unwell. This will allow GPs to focus on their patients
    • if evidence is required by an employer, those with symptoms of coronavirus can get an isolation note from NHS 111 online, and those who live with someone that has symptoms can get a note from the NHS website 
    • employees from defined vulnerable groups should be strongly advised and supported to stay at home and work from there if possible

COVID-19: support for businesses

The Chancellor has set out a package of temporary, timely and targeted measures to support public services, people and businesses through this period of disruption caused by COVID-19.

This includes a package of measures to support businesses including:
  • a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
  • the Coronavirus Self Employment Income Support Scheme
  • deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
  • a Statutory Sick Pay relief package for SMEs 
  • a 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England (Wales has its own scheme) 
  • small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief
  • grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
  • the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank
  • a new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
  • the HMRC Time To Pay Scheme

COVID-19: guidance for employees

If your employer cannot cover staff costs due to COVID-19, they may be able to access support to continue paying part of your wage, to avoid redundancies.

If your employer intends to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, they will discuss with you becoming classified as a furloughed worker. This would mean that you are kept on your employer’s payroll, rather than being laid off.

To qualify for this scheme, you should not undertake work for them while you are furloughed. This will allow your employer to claim a grant of up to 80% of your wage for all employment costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month.

You will remain employed while furloughed. Your employer could choose to fund the differences between this payment and your salary, but does not have to.

If your salary is reduced as a result of these changes, you may be eligible for support through the welfare system, including Universal Credit.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is intended to run for at least 3 months from 1 March 2020, but will extend if necessary.

Full guidance on staying at home and away from others

The government advises that the single most important action we can all take, in fighting coronavirus, is to stay at home in order to reduce our day-to-day contact with other people thereby reducing the spread of the infection. That is why the Government is requiring people to stay at home, except for very limited purposes.

Every citizen must comply with these new measures. The relevant authorities, including the police, will be given the powers to enforce them – including through fines and dispersing gatherings.

These measures came into effect on Monday 23 March. The Government will look again at these measures after three weeks, and relax them if the evidence shows this is possible.

With the exception of the specific organisations covered in the section on closing non-essential shops and public spaces, the Government has not required any other businesses to close – indeed it is important for business to carry on.

Employers and employees should discuss their working arrangements, and employers should take every possible step to facilitate their employees working from home, including providing suitable IT and equipment to enable remote working.

Sometimes this will not be possible, as not everyone can work from home. Certain jobs require people to travel to their place of work – for instance if they operate machinery, work in construction or manufacturing, or are delivering front line services.

If you cannot work from home then you can still travel to work, provided you are well and neither you nor any of your household are self-isolating. This is consistent with advice from the Chief Medical Officer.

Welsh Government Guidance and Services

Coronavirus (COVID-19): support for businesses - Click here to visit website

Business rate relief, grants and loans for businesses to help during the disruption caused by COVID-19.

Guidance to employers and businesses on COVID-19 - Click here to visit website

Information about COVID-19 for employers and businesses and what they need to do.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): planning conditions - Click here to visit website

Guidance for planning authorities on retail deliveries during the coronavirus outbreak.

Rural Payments Wales (RPW): coronavirus (COVID-19) - Click here to visit website

Latest update on RPW services affected by the coronavirus.

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