Nick Marshall, director of financial outsourcing at Beatons accountancy firm, looks at the options for businesses which are forced to close temporarily.
Boris Johnson has ordered Britons to stay at home “unless absolutely necessary”.
For some people, working remotely is easy. They simply take their laptop home and connect via the internet. But for others this isn’t possible.
NHS staff are still going to work of course, as are those who work in food stores and those who run our emergency services.
If you work in an industry where you can’t work from home and are forced to shut up shop or restructure for this difficult period, there is help available to protect your business and workforce.
The main one is the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). This allows all UK employers support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary rather than make them redundant.
The government honour 80% of the wage bill as long as you keep jobs open.
On top of this, there has been a raft of other support measures offered to businesses to protect against the economic emergency caused by the coronavirus.
These include £330bn in state-backed loans, £20bn in other aid, a business rates holiday and grants for some businesses, deferral of VAT return payments and time to pay arrangements for taxes.