If like me, you are one of those excluded from support from the Government, please send an email to our MP to support the #ForgottenLtd campaign calling for a rescue package for small businesses.
Rescue Package – Open Letter from Gina to MPs/HoLSunday,
13 September 2020·#ForgottenLtd Rescue Package for Small Businesses
The#ForgottenLtd campaign represents one of the largest groups, limited company directors, locked out of Government support during the Covid-19 pandemic. Micro and small family run businesses across the UK are struggling to survive, as the majority of business owners have not qualified for meaningful support such as grants or loans and for some in our group, such as those that annually filed PAYE after March 19th, even furlough has not been available.Small and micro businesses in the UK collectively employ 7.5 million people. Without Government intervention and further financial support it is likely that there will be an avalanche of closures, insolvencies, and redundancies over the next few months, across the UK. The #ForgottenLtd want to be one of the main driving forces behind our country’s economic recovery, by sustaining jobs, generating taxes, funding public services, and continuing to be at the heart of communities across the UK. To this end, we have developed a ‘Rescue Package for Small Business’.If adopted by The Treasury, it would provide vital cashflow for small businesses, reduce the cost of employing our staff and help to negate the likelihood that Government-backed loans will be left unpaid. This will save companies, save jobs, and save business owners and their family from worsening mental health issues.From the beginning of the campaign, we have fought to have limited company directors put on an equal footing with the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS) by having their dividend income taken into account. Although we maintain, along with the Treasury Committee, that this is one of the fairest ways to sort out the gaps in Government support, The Treasury’s negative stance on this issue has led us to explore other ways that small businesses could be assisted during this crisis.We have worked with well-known thought leaders in the business, finance,and political spectrum to help us shape these alternative effective, straightforward and actionable policy proposals:
1. Corporation Tax Rebate – based on filed company accounts.
2. Furlough – allow Annual PAYE directors (RTI date after 19th March) to furlough, backdated to 1st March. Also allow working furlough for directors of small limited companies if CJRS is reintroduced.
3. Grants – increase Discretionary Grant Fund and standardise eligibility criteria to allow all businesses to apply – even those home-based or mobile. Create a Small Business Rescue Fund for micro and small limited companies that have not benefitted from a grant to date.
4. Employment – Increase employment allowance to £20k and raise the Employers NICs threshold to £12.5k for a period of 18 months.
5. Bounce Back Loans – convert BBLs to a student loan style mechanism* with a 20% forgiveness for early repayment
We now call upon our MPs to support our campaign to save small businesses. We need you to commit to supporting our call for a segment specific rescue package built into the Budget to prevent further irrevocable damage to the backbone of the British economy, our small businesses.I invite you to sign this open letter to the Treasury to show your support for the 2 million #ForgottenLtd business owners, who create 7.5 million jobs. If you wish to sign this letter, please respond to me with a simple ‘Yes, I will sign the letter’ by replying to my email.I ask you to do this by 10:00am on the 22nd of September as we are sending the letter to the Treasury on the 23rd of September, by which time the #ForgottenLtd will have gone six months without any meaningful financial support.
Yours sincerely
Georgina BroadhurstCo-founder of the #ForgottenLtd Campaign
*The CityUK Recapitalisation Group, ‘Supporting economic recovery: recapitalising businesses post Covid-19’ https://www.thecityuk.com/assets/2020/Reports/2d5179dbfb/Supporting-UK-economic-recovery-recapitalising-businesses-post-Covid-19-v2.pdf
Here’s an email template you can send to Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh & Wickford – [email protected]
****Please copy and paste the text below into an email, amend as needed, and send to your MP asap. Thank you.___________________________________________________
Dear [MP Name],I am writing to you as a constituent – I live at [insert address].I am one of millions of people who have been excluded from Government support during the Coronavirus Pandemic. The #ForgottenLtd campaign have put together a rescue package to help many of your constituents who, like me, are suffering.We have worked with well-known thought leaders in the business, finance, and political spectrum to help us shape these alternative effective, straightforward, and actionable policy proposals. This rescue package is calling for:1. Corporation Tax Rebate – based on filed company accounts2. Furlough – Allow Annual PAYE directors (RTI date after 19thMarch) to furlough, backdated to 1stMarch. Also allow working furlough for directors of small limited companies if CJRS is reintroduced3. Grants – increase Discretionary Grant Fund and standardise eligibility criteria to allow all businesses to apply -even those home-based or mobile. Create a Small Business Rescue Fund for micro and small limited companies that have not benefitted from a grant to date4. Employment – increase employment allowance to £20k and raise the Employers NICs threshold to £12.5k for a period of 18 months5. Bounce Back Loans – convert BBLs to a student loan style mechanism* with a 20% forgiveness for early repaymentYou will have recently received an email from Gina Broadhurst, the co-founder of the #ForgottenLtd campaign, asking you to sign an open letter to the Treasury. Please respond to Gina Broadhurst’s email ([email protected]) if you would like to sign this open letter.I would ask you to do this by 10:00am on the 22nd of September.The campaign team are sending the signed open letter to the Treasury on the 23rd of September, by which time the #ForgottenLtd will have gone 6 months without any financial support.Please be kind enough to inform me as to whether you have signed the open letter. Thank you.It would mean the world to have your support.Yours sincerely[Your first and last name]*The CityUK Recapitalisation Group, ‘Supporting economic recovery: recapitalising businesses post Covid-19’ https://www.thecityuk.com/assets/2020/Reports/2d5179dbfb/Supporting-UK-economic-recovery-recapitalising-businesses-post-Covid-19-v2.pdf
