Unsure if your agency can claim business support? Thi...

If there are agents still uncertain as to whether their company or themselves as individuals are claiming the maximum business support, a new tool may be useful.

The finder tool on the official Gov.UK website will ask business owners to fill out a simple online questionnaire, and which will then direct them to a list of all the financial support they may be eligible for.

There has been high-profile publicity for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and in particular payments for furloughed staff including agency employees, but the entirety of the government schemes are:

- £330 billion of loans and guarantees for businesses;

- 80 per cent of the wages of furloughed workers, up to £2,500 per month;

- deferred the next quarter of VAT payments for firms, until the end of June;

- £20 billion in tax relief and cash grants to help businesses with cash flow;

- new Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes;

- offer to cover the cost of statutory sick pay;

- temporary removal of eligible properties in the retail, hospitality and leisure sector from business rates;

- self-employment Income Support Scheme, offering a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500 a month;

- deferred Self Assessment payments due in July 2020 until January 31 2021;

- companies required to hold AGMs to do so flexibly, which may include postponing them or holding them online;

- suspended wrongful trading provisions for company directors to remove the threat of personal liability during the pandemic; and

- a three month extension for filing accounts to businesses hit by Coronavirus.