Business Support

The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trademarks and copyright. The IPO buildings are currently closed but the majority of services remain unaffected.

A number of service changes were put in place on 27 March 2020. The service changes in relation to interrupted days was reviewed on 29 May 2020.

The IPO declared 24 March, and subsequent days until further notice, interrupted days. An 'interrupted day' is a day in which the normal course of business at the IPO is not possible.

This means that most deadlines for patents, supplementary protection certificates, trademarks and designs and applications for these rights, which fall on an interrupted day will be extended. To help rights holders, businesses and IP professionals plan ahead, the IPO will provide a minimum of 2 weeks’ notice before ending the interrupted days period.

On 29 May, the IPO decided to continue with the period of interruption and will review and update again on 22 June. There are also IPO service changes relating to renewals, postal and paper services, fax, Certified Office Copies (COCs) and payments and refunds.

The Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme allows small and medium-sized businesses and employers to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness absence due to COVID-19. The online service to reclaim SSP launched on 26 May 2020.

The scheme covers up to 2 weeks’ SSP per eligible employee who has been off work because of COVID-19. Employers are eligible for the scheme if their business is UK based, small or medium-sized and employed fewer than 250 employees as of 28 February 2020. Employers must also have had a PAYE payroll scheme that was created and started on or before 28 February 2020.

A claim can be made for employees that had / have Coronavirus, cannot work because they are self-isolating at home or are shielding in line with public health guidance. The remit of the scheme was widened with effect from 28 May 2020 to include employees who have been told to self-isolate under the new NHS ‘Test and Trace’ system as they have come into contact with someone with Coronavirus. The temporary legislation deems individuals who are self-isolating as incapable of work for the purposes of SSP.

Employers should maintain records of staff absences and payments of SSP, but employees will not need to provide a GP fit note. 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.

Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS)

No doubt due to recent lobbying by the press and other interested support groups, the Chancellor has extended the SEISS for a final three-month period to 31 August 2020.

This means that the self-employed who are eligible to claim will have received six-months financial support from government.

As before, applicants will have to wait until the last month of the claim period, August 2020, to make a claim.

A bullet-point summary of the changes is set out below:

• SEISS extended for three months to 31 August 2020
• Applications covering the June – August 2020 period will open in August.
• Grant available will be 70% of eligible earnings (previous quarter 80%).
• Maximum grant for the three-months will be £6,570 (previous quarter £7,500) paid in a single instalment.
• Eligibility criteria remains unchanged.
• A self-employed person can claim for the second grant, to August 2020, even if they had not claimed for the first grant.
• More information on these changes will be published 12 June 2020.

If you are eligible to make a claim for this second grant under the scheme you will still be subject to the same rules regarding eligibility. You will need to confirm that your business has been adversely affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.

If you did not claim for the first quarter, to May 2020, as your business at that time was not adversely affected, but will be affected in the quarter to 31 August 2020, it will be possible to claim for the second quarter.

And finally, claims for the first quarter (March-May 2020) will close 13 July 2020.

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

As previously announced, the CJRS has been extended to 31 October 2020 and will be changed to a flexible arrangement from 1 July 2020 to allow employees to resume part-time working.

The Chancellor and his advisers will be gritting their teeth as drawing a line in the sand by tapering and then closing the CJRS on 31 October 2020 will force the hand of employers to consider their options. It is likely that redundancies will start to climb from that date as will the number of the unemployed.

A bullet-point summary of the changes announced is set out below: 

• The CJRS will close to new entrants on 30 June 2020. The final date employers can furlough staff for the first time will be 10 June 2020.
• From 1 July 2020, employers can bring back employees to work part-time, for any amount of time and any shift pattern. Any claim under CJRS will be limited to normal hours not worked.
• June/July 2020 – Government will continue to pay 80% of costs up to the £2,500 cap.
• August 2020 – Government will pay 80% of wages up to £2,500 cap, but employers will have to cover employers’ NIC and pension costs for the hours the employee does not work.
• September 2020 – Government will pay 70% of wages up to a reduced £2,187.50 cap. Employers will pay employers’ NIC, pension costs and 10% of wages to a total cap of £2,500.
• October 2020 – Government will pay 60% of wages up to a reduced £1,875 cap. Employers will pay employers’ NIC, pension costs and 20% of wages to a total cap of £2,500.
• The cap will be proportional to hours not worked.
• The CJRS will be closed-down 31 October 2020.

The above changes to a flexible approach cloak a raft of detail that government is not publishing until 12 June 2020. Those responsible for making CJRS claims will need to wait for these further clarifications as they will explain how employers should calculate claims.

We will be integrating the changes into our payroll services when they are available and will contact clients if further details regarding part-time working are to be introduced.

Clearly, there are planning considerations. Please call if you have employees on furlough and you need to consider your options; for part-time working up to 31 October and longer-term considerations after this date.  
 

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak has made a further Treasury Direction under sections 71 and 76 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 concerning the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

The CJRS currently helps employers furlough their employees with significant government support. Employers can currently claim cash grants of up to 80% for eligible furloughed wages to a maximum of £2,500 per month, plus the employer National Insurance contributions and minimum auto-enrolment employer pension contributions on that 80%.

The new Direction was published on 22 May 2020 (but the document is dated 20 May 2020) and makes a number of changes to the first Direction. Among the changes, the new Direction makes it clear that written agreement for an employee to cease all work has to be retained by the employer until at least 30 June 2025. The new Direction also provides further details on the training activities a furloughed employee can undertake and concerning the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (“TUPE”) transfer rules.

The new Treasury Direction continues to refer to the scheme as running until the end of June 2020 although the Chancellor has previously announced that the scheme will continue in its current form until the end of July. From 1 August until 31 October 2020, the scheme is expected to continue in a modified format. Further details on the changes are expected to be released shortly and it seems likely that further updated Treasury instructions will be published in due course.

Many retailers and manufacturing businesses have stock on their shelves gathering dust.

There are compelling reasons for tackling this issue as we cautiously emerge from lock-down.

For example, freeing up storage space will enable you increase the volume of goods that are selling.

Stock that is not selling is rather like withdrawing money from your bank dropping it into a box and parking it in your stores or stock-room. It has no real value to your business apart from the vague possibility that it will sell at some future date.

What to do?

As we emerge from lock-down everyone is going to be on the lookout for bargains. Accordingly, create a sale of your slower-moving stocks. You can lower the price to recover the cost to you or set sales prices at a level that is marginally higher than its scrap value.

Why should stock turnover be your key indicator in the coming months? 

Every time you sell stock for more than you paid for it you release the profit into your cash-flow.

In which case it makes sense to monitor sales and stock movements to see which items of stock are selling faster than others: faster stock turnover means valuable cash resources being returned to your bank account.

What works against this process is to have stocks on your shelves that are slow to sell and actually tie-up your working capital to no great effect.

The opportunity to buy at reduced prices will encourage customers to return to your business and help to boost your cash-flow. Both factors that will help you re-establish in the post-COVID economy.

Without a doubt, the furlough scheme has provided small businesses with the means to retain staff that would otherwise have been laid-off.
The government is paying 80% of furloughed employees’ wages (subject to a £2,500 maximum). From 1 August 2020, this level of support is expected to drop to say 60%.

From the same date, 1 August, the rules that effectively ban employees from working while they are furloughed is also expected to be eased and affected employees encouraged to return to part-time working.

However, employers will need to draw breath and figure out their choices regarding staffing levels as we start to emerge from lock-down.

The choices will be:

1. Retain staff and gradually wean the business from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as sales activity resumes pre-March 2020 levels.
2. Lay-off part of the workforce, retaining those needed to support lower levels of activity.
3. Lay-off all the workforce as longer-term restrictions in trade make continued trading impossible.

Whichever of these three choices is considered planning needs to be a key part of the decision making process.

Many employers will need to consider these options as more of the economy is opened up and financial support for furloughed workers is decreased. Please contact us if you need help preparing the necessary forecasts so you can make an informed decision.  

The scope of the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) is to be extended from 26 May 2020. The maximum loan size will be increased from £50 million to £200 million. Larger businesses will be able to benefit from loans up to the lower of 25% of turnover or £200m. The changes are expected to go live on 26 May and full details are expected to be made available on that date. 

This increase will help ensure those large firms which do not qualify for the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) have enough finance to meet cashflow needs during the outbreak.

Companies borrowing more than £50 million through the CLBILS will be subject to restrictions on dividend payments, senior pay and share buy-backs during the period of the loan, including a ban on dividend payments and cash bonuses, except where they were previously agreed. These restrictions also apply to CCFF participants who wish to borrow money beyond 12 months, effective 19 May 2020.

Under the CBILS, the government provides commercial lenders with an 80% partial guarantee on individual loans for businesses that would be otherwise unable to access the finance they need at this critical time.

Personal guarantees of any form will not be taken for facilities below £250,000. For facilities of £250,000 and over, claims on personal guarantees cannot exceed 20% of losses after all other recoveries have been applied. The CLBILS currently supports a range of finance products including short term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance.

To date, the government has provided loans of £359 million through the CLBILS and £18.7 billion through the CCFF.

Last month, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, announced a number of measures to help innovative firms survive the Coronavirus pandemic. One of these measures was the launch of a special investment fund for high-growth companies impacted by the crisis, made up of funding from government and the private sector, called the Future Fund. The government has committed to an initial £250 million in funding towards the scheme. This amount will be kept under review.

Funding applications for the Future Fund opened on 20 May 2020 and the scheme will remain open until the end of September 2020. The Future Fund will provide government loans to UK-based companies ranging from £125,000 to £5 million, subject to private investors at least matching the government commitment.

These convertible loans may be an option for businesses that rely on equity investment and are unable to access other government business support programmes because they are either pre-revenue or pre-profit.

There are a number of conditions that must be met in order to apply for a loan. For example, qualifying businesses must be an unlisted UK registered company that has raised at least £250k in equity investment in the past five years. The company must also have been incorporated on or before 31 December 2019.

Trade credit insurance is a contract acquired by suppliers to make sure they get paid even if their customers default. This gives businesses the confidence to trade with one another and is especially important as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to decimate many businesses. The risk of COVID-19 meant that insurers could withdraw insurance or increase premiums to unaffordable levels.

HM Treasury has now confirmed that to prevent this from happening, the government will provide guarantees for all currently available for trade credit insurance. This will support supply chains and help businesses to trade with confidence as they can trust that they will be protected if a customer defaults on payment.

The final details of the scheme are being worked on and government will liaise with businesses and the industry on the full details of the scheme to ensure firms are supported and risk is ‘appropriately’ shared between the government and insurers.

The guarantees will cover trading by domestic firms and exporting firms and the intent is for agreements to be in place with insurers by end of this month. The guarantee will be temporary and targeted to cover COVID-19 economic challenges and will provisionally last until the end of the year.

It will be followed by a review of the trade credit insurance market to ensure continued support for businesses in the future. Further details will be announced in due course.

Under the Coronavirus Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme small-and medium-sized businesses and employers will be able to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for sickness absence due to COVID-19. It has now been confirmed that the online service to reclaim SSP will launch on 26 May 2020.

In order to claim, you will need the Government Gateway user ID you acquired when you registered for PAYE Online. If you use an agent who is authorised to undertake PAYE online for you, they will be able to claim on your behalf. An alternative way of claiming for those unable to do so online will also be made available in due course.

The scheme covers up to 2 weeks’ SSP per eligible employee who has been off work because of COVID-19. Employers are eligible for the scheme if their business is UK based, small or medium-sized and employed fewer than 250 employees as of 28 February 2020. Employers must also have had a PAYE payroll scheme that was created and started on or before 28 February 2020.

A claim can be made for employees that had / have Coronavirus, cannot work because they are self-isolating at home or are shielding in line with public health guidance. The claim amount should not take claimants above the state aid limits under the EU Commission temporary framework.

Employers should maintain records of staff absences and payments of SSP, but employees will not need to provide a GP fit note. 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.