Thousands 'missing out on £10,000 grant'

Jamie Grant outside his restaurant with Leah McCourt

More than 3,000 small businesses eligible for a Stormont grant are yet to submit an application.

The £10,000 payment was set-up by the Executive to help smaller firms affected by Covid-19.

The scheme began issuing payments three weeks ago. The Department of Finance says it is committed to getting the money out as quickly as possible.

So far, it has awarded over £170 million to small firms across Northern Ireland.

A larger fund for retail, hospitality and tourism opened this week, but some smaller firms are still waiting for the earlier payment weeks after applying.

'Still waiting'

Jamie Grant, who owns The Lighthouse Bar and Grill in Donaghadee, told BBC News NI he applied for the £10,000 grant on 26 March and is yet to receive the money.

“We shut the restaurant completely in mid-March. We made the decision based on both the expectation of the grant and our position, to furlough our salaried and full-time staff at this point,” he said.

“The bigger frustration is the lack of information from anyone with authority. We pay our business rates by direct debit and we were originally told we didn't have to do anything and payment would be issued automatically.

“As friends who are business owners began to receive their grants, I called the helpline only to be told that they don't have details for all businesses who pay by direct debit and we would need to fill in the form, which we did.

“The cash we had in reserve has now been used to pay our suppliers and cover wage costs for almost a month as well as overheads and it has practically evaporated.”

'Getting it right'

The Department for Finance has said it is committed to getting money to businesses as quickly as possible, adding that in normal circumstances the administration of these grants would take several months to execute.

“There are some instances where further work is required to make sure the money goes to the right people,” a spokesperson said.

“There are approximately 5,000 applications which may be duplicates because they have a similar name or share a bank account or billing address.

"There are almost 3,000 properties where the rates may be paid by the landlord or owner rather than the business. A separate web portal will be launched next week to capture the extra information needed to ensure grants go to the businesses rather than the landlords."

Jamie Grant is looking to the future, one which may involve implementing social distancing for a time until a vaccine is found.

“We will do our utmost to reopen as quickly as possible when it is deemed safe and appropriate to do so," he said.

“Because we are a small local restaurant, if that process involves extensive social distancing then we will have to look at the protocols carefully to ensure that it is safe to do so for both our staff and customers which is the most important thing for us.”