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Yesterday, the Chancellor announced a raft of measures to support businesses through the winter months as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt our daily lives with the main aim being to protect jobs.
Government assistance to protect jobs and boost cashflow
There was a stark difference in the messaging from back in March when the aim was to get businesses through what was hoped to be a short sharp lockdown to halt the virus. It’s now become clear that we now have to learn to live with the virus and the Chancellor spoke of an economy adapting. He stated that it will not be possible to preserve every job or business indefinitely, and the steps the government are taking are now designed to protect viable jobs and support viable businesses to help prepare them for recovery.
“It is now clear, as the Prime Minister and our scientific advisers have said for at least the next six months the virus and restrictions are going to be a fact of our lives.
Our economy is now likely to undergo a more permanent adjustment.”
– Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer
There are four main ways that the government will assist:
- Support for businesses to bring people back to work and save jobs with a new Job Support Scheme and an extension to the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
- Help for the hospitality and tourism sectors through a continuation of the reduction in VAT
- Support for over 1 million businesses to relieve pressure on their finances and cashflow through an extension to the application period for four government-backed loans schemes, and changes to the terms of repayment for Bounce Back Loans (BBLS) and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans (CBILS)
- New payment schemes to ease the burden of paying deferred VAT and Self-Assessment tax liabilities
eBay assistance to protect jobs and boost cashflow
eBay welcomed the news but pointed out that as well as protecting jobs, businesses trading on eBay have also emphasised that they need assistance to boost cashflow:
“This is good news for the hundreds of thousands of UK small businesses who trade on eBay. The message they’ve been sending us is: yes they need help to protect jobs, but they also need to boost cashflow. The policies the Chancellor has announced today are a step in the right direction, and we’ll be looking at what else we can do at eBay to provide additional help to our sellers through the winter.”
– Murray Lambell, General Manager, eBay UK
It’s great that eBay are looking at what additional help they can give to sellers through the winter. As a reminder some of the steps eBay took in the early stages of the pandemic included:
- Protecting your seller performance during COVID-19
- Deferring fees to support the eBay business community through COVID-19
- Emergency listing restrictions on Coronavirus related products to prevent price gouging
- Refunds for Shop Subscriptions if you temporarily paused selling
- Help to retain your sales history for longer keeping out-of-stock listings active for 180 consecutive days
- eBay Listing Week – free listings & max £1 Final value fee max to support Business Sellers
Over the summer it quickly became clear that there were businesses who’s sales collapsed to zero and others who have had their busiest year ever. With lockdown restrictions once again tightening, both in certain local areas and nationwide, the expectation is that we will live in a changed world for at least six months… and that leads to the big question:
What additional help would you like to see from eBay to assist your business through the winter?
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