Coronavirus Update - Claiming SSP and changes to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Dear all

I hope all is well.

We just wanted to provide an update on two items as promised:

• Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme

• Changes to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme

This scheme is now live and is available to small or medium employers only. That is employers who had less than 250 employees on 28 February 2020. Claims can be made through the scheme if employees have been paid Statutory Sick Pay for coronavirus related absence on or after 13 March 2020.

Employers can claim for up to a maximum of 2 weeks of Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay for each employee.

More information on how to claim can be found here.

If you are an existing payroll client we can make the claim on your behalf. To do this we will need the following information for each employee you are claiming for:

• Full name

• Dates of time off on sick leave

• Whether the individual:

  • Had symptoms

  • Lived with someone who had symptoms

  • Was shielding

We will then process the claim for you and confirm once done.

Please note this only applies to coronavirus related sickness leave.

Changes to Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

There are multiple changes coming up to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in the next few weeks.

The most important change is that the scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June. From this point onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full 3 week period prior to 30 June.

This means that the final date by which an employer can furlough an employee for the first time will be 10 June, in order for the current 3 week furlough period to be completed by 30 June.

Please note that this does not mean the claim has to be made by then – you will have until the end of July to make the June claim but you will not be able to furlough additional staff effectively from 10 June.

In addition the following changes are coming up in future months:

August: The government will pay 80% of wages up to a cap of £2,500. Employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions – for the average claim, this represents 5% of the gross employment costs the employer would have incurred had the employee not been furloughed.

September: The government will pay 70% of wages up to a cap of £2,187.50. Employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions and 10% of wages to make up 80% total up to a cap of £2,500. For the average claim, this represents 14% of the gross employment costs the employer would have incurred had the employee not been furloughed.

October: The government will pay 60% of wages up to a cap of £1,875. Employers will pay ER NICs and pension contributions and 20% of wages to make up 80% total up to a cap of £2,500. For the average claim, this represents 23% of the gross employment costs the employer would have incurred had the employee not been furloughed.

As always please do let us know if you have any question.

Many thanks

Andy

Coronavirus Update 5 - May 2020

Dear all

Apologies we haven’t done a full email update or blog update for a while – there’s been so many changes almost on a daily basis, but I wanted to send an update on where things stand now and a few helpful pointers!

Most importantly though we hope you, your teams, and your families are faring well during this time.

I’ve split it as follows:

• Update on HMRC schemes

• Update on wider funding options

• Update on our ANAC family

Update on HMRC schemes

Here’s our update on the relevant HMRC schemes for our clients:

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (a.k.a.) the furlough scheme – the scheme has now been live for claims for nearly a month, although there are tweaks ongoing. On the whole the system is relatively easy to use, although the calculations can be a bit of a pain! A few pointers from us:

• If you are claiming employment allowance in the period of your claim you cannot claim back the employers NIC through the CJRS claim as well

• There are very set rules on how to calculate part months and how to calculate the claimable employers NIC and pension if you are topping up – the full guidance is here buts it’s a lengthy read!

• Most of the payroll software providers, including Xero have released products that attempt to calculate the furlough scheme elements but none of them are quite right so please be careful – Xero have issued an update in the last few days

If you are a payroll client we will do your claim for you on a monthly basis at the start of the next month. This seems to be a quieter time to do it and we’ve found the grant is normally in our client’s account within a week.

If you aren’t a payroll client and would like us to help please let us know – we can either process the claim for a small fee to cover costs, or we’ve developed a claim calculator that we are happy to share with clients for free.

Coronavirus SSP relief - we are still waiting for HMRC to release a system for reclaiming the 2 weeks of SSP for COVID-19 related sickness leave. They are posting updates here, but please make sure you keep the following for all employees you wish to claim for:

• The reason why an employee could not work

• Details of each period when an employee could not work, including start and end dates

• Details of the SSP qualifying days when an employee could not work

• National Insurance numbers of all employees who you have paid SSP to

We’ll update you once the system is live.

Deferral of VAT payments – for the few of you who are VAT registered please remember that you can defer any VAT payments due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020. This is automatic and you don’t have to claim however if you currently pay your VAT by direct debit you do need to remember to cancel your direct debit before your due date. Please remember this is only a deferral – you still have to pay the VAT by 31 March 2021.

Update on wider funding options

There are now lots of sector specific post of money available and depending on your activities you may have access to more specific pots such as the pots from the Heritage Fund, Arts Council of Wales/Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru, Arts Council England, Crisis (currently closed to new applicants but likely to reopen) amongst many others.

There are also multiple general pots including:

• The National Lottery Community Fund

• National Emergencies Trust – this is managed via your local community foundation – to find yours go here

A lot of grant funders, however, have now temporarily paused new applications but we expect them to open again in the next few weeks and months.

Here, however are a couple of items that we are finding clients are not aware of:

• Small Business Grant Fund – in both England and Wales if you are a business rates accounts holder and eligible for small business rates relief (generally those with a rateable value below £15,000) or rural rates relief you will be eligible for a grant of £10,000 through your local council – to access go to your council’s business rates website - you’ll need to know your business rate account number.

• Bounce back loans – we would urge all clients to be incredibly careful with taking on debt at this time, and our normal guidance still stand that you must check you governing document allows you to take out loans and also that you have considered section 4.9 of Charity Commission guidance document CC8 on financial controls, but if your concerns are solely cashflow then it is worth considering the bounce back loan scheme in particular as this offers a government backed loan, at fixed interest rates.

Update on our ANAC family

As a business based predominantly in Wales we are still in full lockdown and all staff are currently working from home. Even when restrictions start to lift this is unlikely to change overnight as all our staff our young parents and so until schools and nurseries reopen we will working as is. In addition, as many of you are aware, I am currently having to work a condensed week as on Thursdays I am on childcare duties as my wife is a paediatric nurse and we have been unable to get emergency childcare provision for that day and this will continue until nurseries and schools fully reopen, however Lowri, our newish qualified accountant is covering on those days. This has had very little impact on our work and I am confident this will continue to be the case.

We are however continuing to priorities work based on financial situation of clients in the environment and external filing deadlines so please bear with us as we help those clients that most need our support during this time.

We do have two exciting updates though:

• Office move - our office move is going ahead and the build has nearly finished so we are hoping to move into our new permanent home in the Goodsheds Barry (www.goodshedsbarry.co.uk) in July! We’re working with local design agency ongl design to create a flexible space that local charities can also come and use for board meetings and training sessions – we’re really excited and hope to share more over the next few months – keep an eye on our twitter feed for more!

• New staff member – next week we will be growing our family here again with a new addition – Laura Hathaway joins us as a PA to me (poor lass!)/administrative assistant. Please do give her your normal lovely warm welcome!

Also, on an administrative note, we will be re-issuing all our engagement letters over the next month – the main changes are around formatting and increasing the services we offer, as well as updating our privacy policy, but the most important change is that we will be adding a notice period to all contracts of 28 days although this will be allowed to be shortened if agreed by both parties.

As always any questions please do shout!

Many thanks/Diolch

Andy

Coronovirus Update 4.2 - Financial support available - CAF Coronavirus Emergency Fund

Dear all

Another new fund has become available in the last couple of days - CAF have launched an emergency fund for organisations with income under £1m to support them through this time. Grants are for amounts up to £10,000.

More information can be found here:

https://www.cafonline.org/charities/grantmaking/caf-coronavirus-emergency-fund

Many thanks

Andy