It's going to be interesting to see how Mr Sunak's Employee Retention Scheme is going to work out. I run an SME in London with six employees, all furloughed. Have done all the paperwork and hope to see something before next week's payroll is due.
I also have an SME in the US. Similar scheme there (the Paycheck Protection Program) but instead of going to the IRS or some other arm of government, you go to the bank for a loan. With this, you can have not just payroll covered for two months, but rent, utilities and healthcare insurance too. Provided you spend all of the loan on those things within a certain period of time, your bank will write off the loan and the federal govermment will reimburse the bank.
On the face of it, it makes sense going through the bank. It's on them to scrutinise the application, and they're probably better at that sort of thing than any governmental agency. Anyway, I've yet to see a dime out that scheme either, but I am told we'll get it in the coming days.
And of course, even if it all works as promised, who knows how long it'll all last?
