Coronavirus Business Support Grants

Covid 19 Business Grants Subsidy Allowances

If you select “Yes” to the following question on your Omicron Grant Application Form;  

“Please indicate below whether you elect for any Omicron Hospitality and Leisure grant award funding to be paid under the terms of the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance scheme”, any grant award will be paid to your business under the terms of the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance up to the permitted limit.  

Any amount of Omicron Grant remaining to be awarded above the permitted limit, will then, subject to eligibility, be paid under the terms of the Covid 19 Business Grant Allowance and Covid 19 Business Grant Special Allowance, as appropriate in the circumstances.  

If you select “No” to the question outlined in the paragraph above, any Omicron Hospitality and Leisure grant award will, subject to eligibility, be paid under the terms of the Covid 19 Business Grant Allowance and Covid 19, Business Grant Special Allowance, as appropriate in the circumstances.  

The details concerning each of the above allowances and the relevant financial limits are set out below.

COVID-19 business grants subsidy allowances provided on the basis of the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA).

EU State aid rules no longer apply to subsidies granted in the UK following the end of the transition period, which ended on 31 December 2020.

This does not impact upon the limited circumstances in which State aid rules still apply under the Withdrawal Agreement, specifically Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.  However, this will not apply for many cases.

The scheme rules below should be applied to applicants at the level of economic actor, which is defined as an entity or a group of entities constituting a single economic entity regardless of its legal status, that is engaged in an economic activity by offering goods or services on a market.

There are three subsidy allowances for the COVID-19 Business Grant Schemes, as set out below: 

1. Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance, 
2. COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance and 
3. COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance. 

For grants that could be in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol, please see the section below entitled Northern Ireland Protocol.

Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance (SAFA)

Grants may be paid in accordance with Article 364(4) of the TCA, which enables an applicant to receive up to a maximum level of subsidy without engaging Chapter 3 of the TCA. This allowance is up to 325,000 Special Drawing Rights, to a single economic actor over a rolling period of three fiscal years (the “Relevant Period”), which is the equivalent of £337,557 as at 2nd January 2022.

When calculating the amount of subsidy an applicant has received under Article 364(4) of the TCA in a Relevant Period, regard should be had to any subsidy given under Article 364(4) and any subsidy given under Commission Regulation (EU) No 1407/2013 (the De Minimis Regulation).

An applicant may elect not to receive grants under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance and instead receive grants only using the two allowances set out below and available under this scheme. 
The Special Drawing Right calculator can be used to calculate the exchange rate on the day the subsidy is awarded: https://coinmill.com/SDR_calculator.html

COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance

Where the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance limit has been reached or an applicant has elected not to receive a grant under this allowance, grants may be paid in compliance with the Principles set out in Article 366 of the TCA and in compliance with Article 364(3) of the TCA under the COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance (subsidies granted on a temporary basis to respond to a national or global economic emergency).

For the purposes of the COVID-19 Business Grant Schemes, this allowance is £1,900,000 per single economic actor.

This allowance includes any grants previously received under other COVID-19 Business Grant Schemes using the COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance and any State aid previously received under Section 3.1 of the European Commission’s Temporary Framework across any other UK scheme.

This may be combined with the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance to equal £2,237,557 (subject to the exact amount applicable under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance using the Special Drawing Right calculator, and any other support an applicant has received under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance in the Relevant Period).

COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance

Where an applicant has reached its limit under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance and COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance, it may be able to access a further allowance of funding under the COVID-19 Business Grant Schemes of up to £10,000,000 per single economic actor, provided the following conditions are met:

a. The Special Allowance covers only the applicant’s uncovered fixed costs incurred during the period between 1 March 2020 and the date of application, including such costs incurred in any part of that period (‘eligible period’); 
b. Applicants must demonstrate a decline in turnover during the eligible period of at least 30% compared to the same period in 2019. The calculation of losses will be based on audited accounts or official statutory accounts filed at Companies House, or approved accounts submitted to HMRC which includes information on the applicant’s profit and loss; 
c. ‘Uncovered fixed costs’ means fixed costs not otherwise covered by profit, insurance or other subsidies; 
d. The grant payment must not exceed 70% of the applicant’s uncovered fixed costs, except for micro and small enterprises (for the purposes of this scheme defined as less than 50 employees and less than £9,000,000 of annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet), where the grant payment must not exceed 90% of the uncovered fixed costs; 
e. Grant payments under this allowance must not exceed £10,000,000 per single economic actor. This allowance includes any subsidies previously received in accordance with Section 3.12 of the European Commission’s Temporary Framework or previously received under the COVID-19 Business Grant Schemes using this COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance; all figures used must be gross, that is, before any deduction of tax or other charge; 
f. Grants provided under this allowance shall not be cumulated with other subsidies for the same costs. 
An applicant must be able to provide the necessary documentation to demonstrate it is eligible for funding under this COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance and must demonstrate that it can meet all the criteria set out under this allowance before further funding can be given under this allowance. 
Grants provided in excess of the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance may not be granted to applicants that were defined as an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ (as defined in the section below entitled “Undertaking in Difficulty”) on 31 December 2019. 

In derogation to the above, grants can be granted to micro or small enterprises (as defined in condition “d” above) that were already in difficulty on 31 December 2019, provided that they are not subject to collective insolvency proceedings.

For the avoidance of doubt, grants under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance, the COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance and the COVID 19 Business Grant Special Allowance may be combined for a potential total allowance of £12,237,557 (taking into account all grants previously received under the COVID-19 business grants schemes and subject to the exact amount applicable under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance using the Special Drawing Right calculator and the three fiscal year period applicable to the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance).

Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol

Grants in scope of Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol remain subject to EU State aid rules, following the end of the Transition Period which ended on 31 December 2020.

Article 10 provides that EU State aid rules will continue to apply to the UK in respect of measures which affect trade in goods and electricity between Northern Ireland and the European Union.

Where a Local Authority grant falls within scope of Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, then a Local Authority cannot rely on the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance. Instead, a Local Authority must see if the grant can be awarded under the De Minimis Regulation which allows for up to 200,000 euros of subsidy to be given to an undertaking in a rolling three-year fiscal period.

If a grant falls within scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol and the De Minimis Regulation cannot be relied upon, then a Local Authority will need to satisfy itself there is another legal route to award the grant in compliance with EU State aid Rules. For example, the grants may be given under the European Commission’s Temporary Framework.

Undertaking in difficulty

‘Undertaking in difficulty’ means an undertaking in respect of which at least one of the following circumstances occurs:

(a) In the case of a limited liability company (other than a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) that has been in existence for less than three years) where more than half of its subscribed share capital has disappeared as a result of accumulated losses. This is the case when deduction of accumulated losses from reserves (and all other elements generally considered as part of the own funds of the company) leads to a negative cumulative amount that exceeds half of the subscribed share capital. For the purposes of this provision, ‘share capital’ includes, where relevant, any share premium. 
(b) In the case of a company where at least some members have unlimited liability for the debt of the company (other than an SME that has been in existence for less than three years) where more than half of its capital as shown in the company accounts has disappeared as a result of accumulated losses. 
(c) Where the undertaking is subject to collective insolvency proceedings or fulfils the criteria for being placed in collective insolvency proceedings at the request of its creditors. 
(d) Where the undertaking has received rescue aid and has not yet reimbursed the loan or terminated the guarantee or has received restructuring aid and is still subject to a restructuring plan. 
(e) In the case of an undertaking that is not an SME, where, for the past two years: 

1. the undertaking's book debt to equity ratio has been greater than 7.5, and 
2. the undertaking's Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation, (EBITDA) interest coverage ratio has been below 1.0.