COVID-19 – Winter Economy Plan
The Chancellor has announced a new package of measures that will continue to protect jobs and help businesses. The package includes:
- New Jobs Support Scheme to support viable jobs:
- the Scheme will run from 1 November for six months. Employers will continue to pay the wages of staff for the hours they work – but for the hours not worked, the government and the employer will each pay one third of their equivalent salary.
- employees must be working at least 33% of their usual hours. The level of grant will be calculated based on employee’s usual salary, capped at £697.92 per month.
- Extended 15% VAT cut for the hospitality and tourism sectors:
- The rate of VAT applied on most tourism and hospitality-related activities has already been cut from 20% to 5%. The government announced it will extend the temporary 15% VAT cut for the tourism and hospitality sectors to the end of March next year.
- Payment Scheme: for those businesses who deferred their VAT bills, the scheme gives them the option to pay back in smaller instalments. Rather than paying a lump sum in full at the end of March next year, they will be able to make 11 smaller interest-free payments during the 2021-22 financial year.
