NI Micro-business Hardship Fund

The Northern Ireland Executive has recently launched the NI Micro-business Hardship Fund in an effort to aid Northern Ireland based micro-businesses and also social enterprises during these unprecedented times. This fund is for those businesses who are unable to access other Covid-19 support measures.

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Access The Online Eligibility Checker

To find out more about this fund and to access an Online Eligibility Checker to find out if you are one of the businesses that can apply for this fund go to the NI Business Info website.

Here is a snippet from the website giving a summary of the scheme along with details on who is eligible to apply:

Summary Of The Scheme

“The funding is available to businesses unable to access the £10,000, £25,000 and Covid-19 Childcare Support grant schemes.

In order to ensure that the £40 million budget is not exceeded, the final amounts awarded will depend on the number of successful applications.

The level of Hardship Fund grant will be up to £10,000 for businesses which pay business rates on premises and up to £5,000 for those that do not pay business rates. Businesses within each category will receive the same amount.

Only one grant will be paid to each eligible business, irrespective of how many properties the business occupies.

Eligibility – Who Is Eligible

Businesses should ensure they meet the following criteria before applying to the fund:

-The business must be based in Northern Ireland.
-At 29 February 2020, the business must have employed between one and nine employees paid via PAYE. Businesses, where the sole employee is the business owner or company director, are not eligible for this scheme. The number of employees will be based on headcount.
-Since 1 March 2020, the business must have experienced a reduction in turnover in excess of 40% as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic or associated Government restrictions.”

We hope the above information proves useful to you. We keep a track on all the various grants and funds available to businesses both large and small so if you want to know what may be available to your business please get in touch with us here at WHR Accountants. We can also help you with any other accountancy related issues if required.