edders23 wrote:
grandad wrote:
edders23 wrote:
funny how this appeared after the money ran out for the grant scheme
Who says the money has ran out?
BBC news about 3 days ago apparently many councils have paid all of it out
Not sure how all this is working, precisely, but councils may have been provided with a limited pot to distribute. As I said, the SNP Government got a lump sum from Westminster to replicate one of the schemes up here, but there was a big hoohah from businesses who claimed they were being short-changed, and that the SNP were funnelling the cash to their preferred recipients. Don't know what it was all about, precisely, but apparently certain businesses down south were getting £x,000 per *premises*, while the SNP were providing £x,000 per *business* regardless of the number of premises, so obviously some businesses felt they were losing out.
But the schemes administered directly by the UK Treasury will be different, and no limit as such - they'll just be adding to existing Government debt by borrowing on the money markets, so there's no fixed limit as such.
But you may have a point of sorts in that I wouldn't be surprised if the Government is now punting this scheme in preference to giving us another month (or however long) of the self-employment grants
Which I hope I'm wrong about, but the intention now seems to be to make these loans incredibly accessible for sole traders/micro-businesses etc, so in a way it looks broadly similar, the big difference being of course that these loans will have to be paid back, unlike the grants. Obviously there will be a lot of defaults and loans obtained fraudulently here, but maybe the Treasury is thinking that at least some of the loans will be repaid, unlike the grants (although as the grants are taxable some of the grant cash will be clawed back that way).
But I'm wondering how applications will be processed etc - to some extent it looks like the self-employment grants, but HMRC has most of the information necessary for that already. I wonder what evidence and what criteria they'll use for these loans?
Which is another reason I'm preferring the grants - if you're eligible then you get the full monty, but with the loans you don't know whether it's maybe a good idea to apply for a smaller amount, because if you apply for a bigger amount then you're less likely to get it? Or do you automatically get up to 25% of turnover if you meet the criteria for a loan? And there will be various banks and financial institutions providing the loans, so which one to apply to?
The various press reports etc makes it all sound a bit too easy, so I suspect it'll be a bit more difficult than it sounds.
Decisions, decisions.
But in the meantime, the big question is, should I cut my own hair with a pair of scissors and a comb?