Financial Assistance Extended for businesses impacted by COVID-19

Financial support, originally provided in July, has been extended for customer facing businesses which continue to be impacted by self-isolation requirements of business owners and staff, or a drop in customer demand caused by COVID-19.

The extended support is available for customer facing businesses who are unable to work from home, including those operating in the catering, entertainment, hospitality, leisure, lifestyle and retail sectors plus a number of service sectors.

The extended support has been designed to support businesses who have experienced a decreased turnover of 25% or more in August 2021, compared against August 2019 or August 2020, and can be used toward any business overheads and staffing costs, to alleviate cash flow issues.

Applicants can complete a single application form and, dependant on their individual circumstances, can claim either a grant equivalent to the value of one year’s rates payment for each of their commercial premises, or a grant payment of £1,000.

The extended support, approved by the Economic Recovery Group, will be facilitated through the existing Business Premises Support Scheme and the Coronavirus Business Support Scheme and those eligible for payments in July may now also be eligible for further support based on August trading.

Eligible applicants who operate from commercial premises can apply to receive either a grant equivalent to one year’s rates bill for each of their commercial premises, or a single grant payment of £1,000 if their annual rates bill(s) is less than £1,000.

Eligible applicants who do not operate from commercial premises, or do not contribute to the cost of rates for the commercial premises, can apply to receive a single grant payment of £1,000.

Applications opened today (Wednesday 1^st September 2021), and will close on 15^th October 2021 at 17:30.

More information on this Scheme can be found here: https://www.departmentforenterprise.im/coronavirus/extended-covid-19-support/ 

Potential applicants who are unsure of their eligibility are encouraged to contact the Department for Enterprise by email at enterprisesupport@gov.im or by telephone on 687333.