Covid-19 support navigator

At the time of writing the lockdown has been in force for 6 weeks, and in that time there have been a myriad of support packages (and revisions) announced by the government in an attempt to keep businesses in business. It has been a constant struggle to try to stay up to date.

But no longer: the government has added a “support finder” tool to the Covid-19 resources on the gov.uk website. Take a look at www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder

The finder works as a series of questions with ‘yes/no’ and tick-box answers. It doesn’t require any identifying details (name, tax UTR, PAYE reference, etc) so you can investigate the support without creating a history. The questions, and the information you will need to know to answer them are:

1. UK nation in which your business is based
2. Number of employees (more or less than 249)
3. Annual turnover (<£85,000, £85,000 to £45 million, £45 million to £500m) 4. Are you an employer with a PAYE scheme?
5. Are you self-employed?
6. Rateable value of your premises (<£51,000, >£51,000 or N/A)
7. Business sector (retail hospitality & leisure, nurseries, other)
8. Eligibility for Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief (on 11 March 2020)
9. Are you due to make an Income Tax Self-Assessment Payment-on-Account on 31 July 2020 (unlike the previous questions, this relates to a personal liability not related to your business)

Your responses to the above questions generates a tailored list of support packages for which your business may be eligible.

For each suggested package, there is a brief description of the measure and eligibility, with a link to take you to the relevant page of GOV.UK for further detail.

Start your search here or take a look at our resources and notes about the various options here