How does the outbreak of Coronavirus affect your business?

The Government has offered support to small to medium sized businesses with costs relating to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) by refunding eligible SSP as a result of the COVID-19 if certain criteria are met:

  • Must have less than 250 employees as of 28 February 2020
  • Can only claim SSP for employees as a result of COVID-19
  • Employers must keep records of staff absences, however, they are not required to provide a GP note

The refund is limited to two weeks per employee and the eligibility period is from the day on which regulations extending to SSP to self-isolators come into force.

The below relief only applies to English Companies, the Northern Ireland Executive is yet to announce anything similar, the rates relief currently applies to English companies if the following rules are met

Business rates discount…

A business which has up to £51,000 rateable value will not pay any rates, this has been extended to include hospitality and leisure businesses as well as retailers. Further, there is a £5,000 discount on business rates for pubs which have a rateable value of up to £100,000.