Can someone please explain the 80 per cent salary cover

[noFlowers]

Sorry if I'm being stupid but what does this mean!

Does it mean businesses who may lay off staff get 80% of staff salaries to pay them so they can still work.

Or does it mean you lost your job due to all this and you're at home and you get 80% of your salary.

Grants are typically gifts not loans. But if requirements not met they can be repayable. Requirements don’t seem to be published.

It might have been asked above so apologies if I missed it.

Are the £10k and £25k grants that were mentioned earlier in the week for rateable businesses still available now that they have brought in the staff wages offer? Or does the second supercede the first?

Also, I own and run several businesses that I have been ordered to close, two of them with the lower rateable value and not VAT registered, and two with a value exceeding £12k each separately VAT registered. Does anyone know if I get a grant for each one, or will it be one grant for me as a sole trader?

One grant wouldn’t pay my rent on all the spaces for two months, and I have no idea how I would ever pay back the rental debt I will be incurring whilst closed.

Who pays the Paye and nics on the £2500?

@ButtWormHole you seriously need to STFU how dare you tar everyone with the same brush. Some people were forced into self employment to keep jobs due to pensions being enforced on employers and there have been so far no real perks. Without this wage we are fucked. I am a key worker and meant to work. My self employed husband needs to work as is the main earner. We can't survive on SSP. And now not entitled to childcare as schools closed and he is not keyworker. This is a shite situation. You are a prize ass piece. Now off you go enjoy your dividends or whatever it is you priviliged self employed folk enjoy.

I think we have to distinguish between those who are in the gig economy and those who are self-employed professionals on medium/long-term contracts. It's true that the latter are better paid than their employed counterparts on balance so we would expect them to take more of a hit at this time.

But these are strange times, and a lot of these people live in the SE and have mortgages....

My understanding with the 80 percent up to £2,500k is that employers will be required to provide certain employee benefits. Does anyone know what these are please? For businesses who now have an income of £0 it still might be tricky for them to keep on staff.

I don't know what you mean by benefits. there are standard terms to work out who is an employee and who is not and also HMRC PAYE records and some employees have loads of perks like gyms and cars and others have none.

mumba, what will happen is the employer will pay the normal salary and take tax and NI off as usual. The employer will if they choose apply to the Government for the £2000 a month (the 80%) back and HMRC which currently has no system to pay employers money automatically back so presumably will make a right mess of it in theory will then eventually restore that money to the employer by some kind of payment system starting if they are lucky in April. I am sure the £2000 is gross.

Queen, I do not know about the grants as have not looked into them (I am still open) - I would expect they would run alongside in addition to the 2500 thing. However people need to wait a bit because the regulations are not passed by law yet and the details are not available. I am afraid if I were an employer who can easily rehired when times get better, rather than one desperate not to lose really valuable rare staff, I would be making redundancies and not using the new scheme.

I think unless they move quickly that's exactly what will happen Xenia, folk will be made redundant.

Employers should only have to pay out the 80%, not 100% though. That was explicitly said, topping up to 100 was optional.

80% of salary paid by company who if wish can make up extra 20% which I doubt many will. This is paid to companys that have to close at this time so lots are not made redundant. they have to take you back on when re-open.
Company has to apply for this grant.
In my humble opinion this is not a free bee, nothing is, it will have to be paid back somewhere in the future, be it by company / ourselves, maybe in few years, tax rises or something. But its a fabulous idea as it helps stop the DWP picking up the slack.

1. a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme : Portal not up and running yet.

2. the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans. If you contact your bank, today I was told by our business bank manger, that our bank hadn't yet arranged this.

Both = not very helpful.

1) a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme : Portal not up and running yet.

Should be up and running by the end of April.........

It was not my understanding that it was only for businesses that have closed. I believe it is to cover staff who might otherwise be made redundant just through lack of work (eg construction industry). Is this not the case?

Honky yes it’s for everyone not just closed

I have been trying to find that out. Eg if you have double the work as your business is very much doing well under the virus I presume you cannot then apply for the 80% as it is only for workers who otherwise would be made redundant? I think the devil will be in the detail once the regulations are passed.

I believe the financial package is going to the House of Commons tomorrow for approval. It is all a draft at present.

The employees are not allowed to work whilst furloughed.

Same with our bank re business interruption loans. British business bank says they're live, waited 90 minutes on hold to be told they're not.

Ssp reclaim process doesn't exist

Small business grants - no claim mechanism exists

If you had double the work would you want to have employees not in though. I suppose some might have other reasons but it doesn’t make much sense to do it.

Hmm Statistically not great so far

DH has been told today that he will be furloughed. The Government will pay him £2.5k and his employer are going to top it up to his fully salary.

He isn’t allowed to work for his employer during this time. He is a Global Senior Manager in the Leisure/Entertainment industry.

A bit late to this but how would this work if the company had to stop working due to lockdown? My DH is a structural engineer for an agricultural/industrial buildings firm and is still working as normal at the moment but I’m a bit worried about what will happen if they have to close due to lockdown?

@TheCountessatHotelCortez Your husband will be covered in these circumstances.

As long as the company is able to furlough him then this is exactly what it is for. The problem is that until the government becomes clearer on how it is going to work it remains a risk for businesses. If it has to be reclaimed the company still has to have the money to pay it out in the first place.

@userxx thank you

I started a new job in McDonalds on Monday so I wonder what this will mean for people who have literally just started new jobs. I worked 3 years at my last job and went into this one with no gap. Wonder what happens in these cases.

We have 3 staff in that position, in their first month with us. No idea what happens there.

Pensions, ni benefits .. has there been any clarification on those yet. Employers still having to pay them on furloughed employees?