Summary of support measures for healthcare businesses

Healthcare businesses across all professions have been overtly affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic, and our EQ Healthcare team have been working to make sure our clients receive the relevant support and funding available to them.

We have assisted a number of our healthcare clients with applications for various loans and grant funding, including the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund (PERF) which provides grants to SMEs who are vital to Scotland’s local or national economy and have been made vulnerable by this crisis. You can read more about how we supported their successful application here.

To help you find relevant information, we’ve summarised below the main support measures and areas of advice provided to our clients in some of the healthcare professions.

Children’s Nurseries

• Nurseries qualifying for the Small Business Bonus Scheme, and receiving Day Nursery Relief, are eligible to apply for a grant of £10,000 from their local authority. The grant is not repayable, but is taxable, and once applied for the normal turnaround times are 10 working days. Grant applications open until 31 March 2021 and you can contact your local council if you’re not sure if you’re eligible or if you need more information.
• Guidance published in April does not prevent nurseries that continue to receive local authority funding to claim through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), however, support can’t be claimed for staff costs that are already covered by other forms of public funding. Nurseries must assess the normal percentage of funding derived from private sources and use this percentage as the basis for their CJRS calculations. We have assisted a number of clients with the calculation and the submission of claims to the CJRS.
• A number of clients have been successful in making claims through their insurance provider under the loss of earnings clauses in their policy documentation. If you haven’t already done so we would recommend reviewing policy documentation and contacting your insurer directly to discuss.

Dentists

• We have provided dental clients with advice on claiming the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) for their practices, which has resulted in several receiving the £10,000 which will supplement their lowered income.
• We have advised a number of associates on claiming the self-employed income support scheme, which is claimable where income is below the £50,000 threshold regardless of the NHS income support received elsewhere. You can read more about those here.
• As mixed practice can only claim for furloughed staff on the private element, not the NHS element, we have been supporting our clients with their CJRS claims.

GP’s, Care Homes and Pharmacies, in many cases, are not entitled to the government support but remain fully operational. Our healthcare team have been keeping in regular contact, offering payroll support and cashflow projections, allowing them to focus on providing the hard work they continue to deliver.

Research and Development (R&D) tax credits can help innovative healthcare companies that have undertaken problem solving activities to adapt or create new processes or product to increase their cashflow, and we are in the process of helping a few of our healthcare clients with submitting R&D claims. We have previously helped a client secure tax savings of £38,000 in a series of developments undertaken in the construction of dental implants. You can read more here.

For more information or to discuss your own circumstances, please get in touch with your usual EQ contact or a member of our EQ Healthcare team via healthcare@eqaccountants.co.uk or call 01382 312100.