These government support services are available to small businesses and self-employed individuals who have been affected financially by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The services provide help towards paying employees, paying commercial rent, and more.
The Restart Grant
The restart grant was one of the first support schemes which became available in the UK. The scheme stood as a once-off payment to businesses to support them as restrictions were eased. It was a once of payment which could add up to £18,000 depending on the business’s loss and expenditures.
The Restart Grant closed for new applications on 30 June 2021 but was seen as a major help towards small businesses affected by the lockdown.
Recovery Loan Scheme
The Recovery Loan Scheme was seen as a major point in supporting businesses after lockdown. It was launched in April 2021 and is set to run until the end of 2021. It stood as a scheme that replaced previous loan grants from the government. The Scheme provided help towards small and larger businesses providing up to £10 million of funds to recover their businesses.
CJRS (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme)
The CJRS scheme was put in place to provide companies who were forced to lay off employees with finances to pay employees monthly salaries of up to £2,500. The monthly salary which was paid was 80% of the employee’s salary. This later changed by insisting the employers pay 10% of the employee’s salary.
The only requirements to the scheme were that a company had to have staff and be in a situation where they could not pay them.
Commercial Rent Protection
This scheme provided business owners who could not pay their commercial business rent with the ability to keep their premises and be protected from being evicted. The scheme was only put in place for businesses who could not pay rent. Other businesses who could still afford to pay rent during the pandemic had to do so themselves.
The scheme is set to run until 25 March 2022 for tenants and landlords to have sufficient time to calculate when overdue rent can be paid in full.
SEISS (Self-Employment Income Support)
To have received the SEISS grant the self-employed individual would have needed to provide HMRC with turnover figures proving information on how the lockdown had affected them financially.
The grant covered 80% of the average trading profits for three months if there has been a drop of at least 30% in profits. If the individual had not been affected as badly, they could still receive 30% of the average profits.
ESA (Employment and Support Allowance)
The ESA support scheme was put in place to provide financial assistance to those who had disabilities or any other health issues which were affected due to the lockdown and the individual’s capability to work.
Not being able to get sick pay or needing to self-isolate, the ESA scheme was then provided. Once the individual had been assessed, they would fall under 1 of 2 groups receiving an amount depending on whether the individual could start working again.
The scheme paid up to £74.70 per week until the individual could start working again or up to £114.10 a week if they were not able to.