Boris Johnson made his announcement yesterday of the additional National Insurance levy to be paid to help the NHS and fund Social Care and in addition added 1.25% to the rate of dividend tax payable.
Leaks from Whitehall centred around the intended increase in National Insurance that will take effect from April 2022 and how it broke the Government manifesto promise of no tax nor national insurance increases during the term of this Government.
The exact details of how the increment will be applied between employers, employees and self-employed is yet to be published.
What was below the radar was the intended increase in the rate of dividend tax, again from April 2022. The previous 7.5% for basic rate tax payers will increase to 8.75% , with higher rate increasing from 32.5% to 33.75% and upper rate increasing from 38.1% to 39.35%.
Hopefully, the additional monies generated will alleviate the backlog of consultations and operations and go a long way to improving your working environment. Similarly, for social care any additional money is badly needed.
Although much was publicised about breaking the manifesto promise everyone was acutely aware that money was needed to be found to help the NHS and Social Care to recover from the pandemic.
On 27 October 2021 Rishi Sunak will give his half yearly budget update and no doubt further leaks will surface prior to any announcement.
Many of you will have reflected over the past few weeks of the impact of COVID19 and the change to your practice in its everyday dealings with patients, staff and your own interactions.
The government has published some case studies of how various organisations within the NHS dealt with the pandemic and may assist you in your own COVID 19 debriefing.
Details of the various case studies published on 5 June 2020 can be found here
The general public, ourselves included, have been acutely aware from the news and government announcements of the number of individuals infected and sadly the number of people who have lost their life due to COVID. Little is heard of those that survive and what changes to their lives and care they will need following their recovery from the infection.
On the 5 June the government published guidance on the aftercare of inpatients recovering from the virus. Details can be found here.
Updated guidance (6 June 2020) on the management of staff and exposed patients or residents in health and social care settings has been published and is available here.
Finally, flow charts relating to symptomatic and asymptomatic workers return to work following a SARS-COV-2 test have been published and can be found here:
Friends and colleagues of Dr Saad Al-Dubbaisi, a respected doctor from Bury, Manchester, have following his untimely death produced a safety assessment and decision score card based on a number of factors including age, ethnicity, gender and other medical factors. The scoring system is named after him.
We felt this tool will be invaluable in assessing the risk to your staff as mild, moderate or high risk when interacting with patients.
Click here for details of the card and how to use it
We at Sandison Easson & Co hope you keep well and safe and trust we have in some small way helped in bringing to your attention this invaluable asset to help keep you and your staff safe.
Click the webinar above to hear details of the new bounce back loan scheme.
If you need any assistance at all then please do not hesitate to contact any of the partners or associates here at Sandison Easson & Co.
Finally, thank you for listening to our webinar and also the wonderful job you are doing for all of us and our families during this difficult time.
The government announced yesterday a new type of loan that is 100% guaranteed by the state.
The initial details suggest that you can borrow between £2,000 and £50,000 with no fees or interest for the first 12 months with no repayment for the first 12 months and a loan term of up to 6 years.
This new scheme is a follow up to the criticism over the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) where banks were slow to respond and the take up was low as detailed information was needed based on ‘normal’ lending requirements.
More details of the new loan will be available from Monday 4 May 2020.
Very few details have been released but what we know so far is that to be eligible for this new loan you must be:
1. Based in the UK
2. Have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus
3. Were not in ‘difficulty’ on 31 December 2019
More...
Job Retention Scheme
Following on from the Government public announcement of the grant available for staff that are furloughed more details were published yesterday and can be found by clicking the link below:
Read the latest Job Retention Scheme here
It is designed to support employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus.
The main point is that furloughed staff cannot undertake any work for you. This includes provision of services or generation of income.
If an employee is on reduced hours or reduced pay they will not be eligible for the 80% grant.
The scheme applies to any type of contract including:
- Full time
- Part-time
- Employees on agency contracts
- Employees of flexible or zero-hour contracts
You must write to your employee to explain that they have been furloughed and keep a record of communication.
Any employee hired after 28 February is not eligible.
The grant will be based on actual salary before tax as of 28 February 2020. Fees, commissions and bonuses are not included.
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Financial update
From the partners and staff at Sandison Easson & Co we owe you all a debt of gratitude during this period.
All of us have family and friends that work in various sectors of the NHS and appreciate the task that will lie ahead.
What we can do to help, as we always have, is with your financial affairs. We understand that your normal working day will be altered and as such the partners and associates will be available night or day to deal with any queries you may have.
All of us are in this together.
We will still be attending to deadlines of tax returns and accounts which will be even more important as financial planning will be on your minds and you will want to focus on dealing with patients.
The Revenue will have some flexibility with regards to tax payments. These are explained below.
Coronavirus job retention scheme
Due to the speed at which this scheme has been rolled out, there remains many areas to clarify but at the time of writing we know the following:
- All of our clients are eligible for the scheme where they employ staff through a PAYE scheme.
- Workers are given a special status of being ‘Furloughed’ (see further information below).
- HMRC will reimburse 80% of their wage cost subject to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
- Effective from 1 March 2020 if you have already had to take steps with your employees.
- HMRC are working on their systems to facilitate the above.
We understand that one of the eligibility criteria will be that a PAYE scheme has to be in place for your employee(s). Many clients pay salaries below the level required to maintain a PAYE scheme and at the time of writing we do not believe that anyone in that position will be eligible for the scheme. Additionally, anyone engaging the services of as secretary on a self-employed basis cannot use the scheme but one would expect your secretary payments to be reduced following a reduction in activity.
Where eligible, HMRC will provide funds to support the worker’s wages and prevent the need to make them redundant.
Furloughed worker
Where a business does not have sufficient work to retain the services of an employee they can designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers’. They remain an employee and the terms and conditions of their employment are still enforceable.
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Contact Details
During the special measures period, the partners and team at Sandison Easson will largely be working from home. We do have certain members of the team in isolation and unable to work which is a dynamic situation and therefore we suggest that any queries that require an urgent response are directed to the partner or associate that is responsible for your affairs. Their contact details are:
Finally, we thank you for everything you are doing for us and our families.
