New Funding to Support Local Lockdown Business Closures

As more towns and cities are being put into local lockdowns due to a resurgence of Covid cases, the Government has announced further packages of support for businesses and their employees that are forced to close due to the lockdowns.

The chancellor announced that businesses forced to close due to local lockdowns would receive two additional measures of support, the first is an expansion of the Job Support Scheme which will provide employers with contributions towards employee wages. The second is increased cash grants for the already active Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG).

Under the Job Support Scheme expansion, if your business premises are legally required to shut then eligible businesses will receive a government grant which will pay two-thirds of each employees’ salary (or 67%), up to a maximum of £2,100 a month. Under the scheme, employers will not be required to contribute towards wages and will only have to cover employer NICS and pension contributions. Businesses will only be eligible to claim the grant while they are subject to restrictions and employees must be off work for a minimum of seven consecutive days.

We are awaiting further guidance but as it stands the expansion will run in line with the rest of the JSS, beginning on 1 November and being available for six months, with a review point in January. For employees to be eligible they will have to of been employed by the firm before 1 November 2020. A claims service for the grant will be available from early December and the scheme will be available UK wide.

The second provision of support will be in the form of increased cash grants for the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG), which has been in place since 9 September 2020. The scheme will now provide grants of up to £3,000 per month payable every two weeks, in comparison to the up to £1,500 every three weeks which was available previously. To be eligible for this grant you must occupy a property on which you pay business rates. The rateable value of the property will determine what size grant you receive. For information on eligibility for this scheme, you can CLICK HERE to read our blog on the LRSG.