Good morning,

I thought I should write to you to give a view on the financial provisions that should be available to your membership from funders.

Majority of lenders are taking strategic actions to assist customers in impacted sectors. This may take a variety of forms however I would state that the most straightforward one is to provide capital repayment holidays to providers. This likely to be an initial 3 months but could be requested to be extended. Benefit is an immediate cash boost. We are instigating this now for example.

With regard to covenants there will be consideration given to the appropriate relaxation or waiver of these but likely on a case by case basis.

Government loan scheme also announced however as yet we, the banks, do not have the details of how that will actually work therefore we cannot access it today but hopefully next week we will get more detail.

In respect of individuals the Government has announced measures to assist including mortgage repayment holidays which is widely communicated in the media. Most banks signed up to that clearly.

I would encourage members to speak to their bank, if they have not done so already, even just to open a line of dialogue around CV19 impacts and to ensure that they are aware of what help is available to provide some financial security at this time.

Finally I am aware from several customers that HMRC has been very helpful in allowing deferment of payments for NI etc so again worth an approach directly.

Happy to speak on any of this and provide further updates.

Regards 

Derek Breingan BA(Acc) MCIBS

Head of Health & Social Care Sector