Payroll Scheme to close "as we learn to live responsibly with covid”

Friday 20 August 2021

The Payroll Co-Funding Scheme will be closed down at the end of September.

The Policy & Resources Committee said it was "the appropriate time to close the scheme, following the traditional end of the visitor season when more normal trading conditions will apply."

The Visitor Accommodation Scheme and the Visitor Attraction Scheme will continue until the end of March 2022. 

Another financial support measure, the Business Disruption Loan Guarantee Scheme, remains available until the end of the year.

P&R has said it will release a financial summary of the cost of business support “in recognition that the substantial support provided to businesses over the past 18 months has come at a significant cost to the taxpayer”.

“The Payroll Co-Funding Scheme was never going to continue indefinitely,” said Deputy Mark Helyar, the Treasury lead for Policy & Resources.

“It was always the intention that this taxpayer-funded support would cease when trading conditions allowed businesses to operate at more reasonable levels, which is what we are starting to see. 

“Looking back to the original intentions of these measures, the aim was to support viable businesses who were impacted by Covid-19, and that is what we have done, in some cases for the past 19 months.

“Now is the right time to close this scheme as we all learn to live responsibly with Covid-19”

The Committee will continue to “monitor the situation carefully” and “listen to industry feedback wherever conditions become challenging”, he added.