The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing further support for borrowers affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The UK's financial regulator announced tailored measures for borrowers in September and said it would keep them under review as the situation evolved. With a second national lockdown starting today, it has made further proposals.

The FCA has proposed to extend payment deferrals and other support to personal loans, credit cards, motor finance, rent-to-own, buy-now-pay-later and pawnbroking customers who are experiencing payment difficulties because of COVID-19.

These proposals will mean that those who have not yet had a payment deferral will be eligible for two payment deferrals of up to six months in total. In addition, those who currently have an initial payment deferral will be eligible for a further payment deferral of up to three months.

Commenting on the proposals, Eric Leenders, Managing Director of Personal Finance at UK Finance, said: 'Lenders continue to provide unprecedented support to borrowers impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and are working closely with the FCA to ensure customers continue to receive the help they need.

'It will always be in the long-term interest of customers who are able to do so to resume making payments, but for anyone who is still struggling ongoing support will be available.'

The government has delayed the introduction of new online pensions dashboards that will enable individuals saving for retirement to view their pension pots in one place.

The pensions dashboards system was initially supposed to take effect in 2019. However, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) recently outlined that a fully operational pensions dashboard system will not be in place until 2023.

According to the MaPS, development and testing of the pensions dashboard system will start in 2021.

Commenting on the issue, Chris Curry, Principal of the Pensions Dashboard Programme at the MaPS, said: 'While dashboards are a simple concept, the delivery of dashboards will be complex and is reliant on collaboration between the Pensions Dashboard Programme and many other organisations across government, regulators, dashboard providers, pension schemes and providers to complete actions at a specific time.

'The first version of the data standards, which will be published in December, will enable industry to take action and take the next steps in making pensions dashboards a reality.'

The government has increased the support available to self-employed workers and extended its emergency business loan schemes as the UK heads for a second national lockdown.

It has increased the third instalment of the Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) from 40% to 80% of average trading profits for November.

The SEISS grants will also be paid faster than previously planned, with the claims window opening at the end of November rather than the middle of December.

In addition, UK firms will now have until the end of January to apply for emergency business loans, which is a two-month extension from the original 30 November deadline.

Eligible loans include Bounce Back Loans (BBL), the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), as well as the Future Fund, which is designed for UK start-ups.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: 'The rapidly changing health picture has meant we have had to act in order to protect people's lives and I know this is an incredibly worrying time for the self-employed. That is why we have increased the generosity of the third grant, ensuring those who cannot trade or are facing decreased demand are able to get through the months ahead.'

Further details can be found here.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been extended until December, with furloughed employees set to receive 80% of their salary for hours not worked and businesses asked only to cover national insurance and employer pension contributions.

On 31 October Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new national lockdown for England that will run from 5 November until 1 December. The Prime Minister also confirmed that the CJRS has been extended for a further month.

The CJRS was supposed to have ended after being scaled back to cover 60% of salaries during October.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that the scheme will retain the flexible element, but the level of government support will return to the levels given in August. Furloughed employees will receive 80% of their current salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500.

In a statement, the Treasury said: 'The government will confirm shortly when claims can first be made in respect of employee wage costs during November, but there will be no gap in eligibility for support between the previously announced end-date of CJRS and this extension.'

The Treasury also confirmed that the Job Support Scheme (JSS), which had been due to launch on 1 November, will not start until the CJRS closes.

The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) has issued a last call for businesses looking to make use of the increased Annual Investment Allowance (AIA).

The AIA will be reduced from £1 million to £200,000 from 1 January 2021. Businesses that incur significant expenditure on plant and machinery before the end of this year are likely to get tax relief on the cost much earlier than if the purchase is made in 2021.

Jeremy Coker, President of the ATT, said: 'The AIA rules can catch a business unawares.

'Many businesses will have deferred decisions about purchasing capital equipment this year because of the enormous uncertainties created by the pandemic. For any which are considering such purchases now, the scheduled ending of the temporary increase in the AIA in two months' time introduces an unwelcome additional complexity.

'Although the timing of a purchase may make no difference in the long run to the amount of expenditure which qualifies for tax relief, it can make an enormous difference to how quickly that relief is received and the contribution that the relief can make to the cashflow of a business.'

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will set out a one-year Spending Review on 25 November as the government continues to tackle the economic slump caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Spending Review will set departments' resource and capital budgets for 2021/22, and the Devolved Administration's block grants for the same period.

The Review will focus on three areas:

• providing departments with the certainty they need to tackle COVID-19 and deliver the government's Plan for Jobs to support employment
• giving public services enhanced support to continue to fight against the virus, alongside delivering first-class frontline services
• investing in infrastructure to deliver the government's plans to unite and 'level up' the country, driving the economic recovery.

Mr Sunak said: 'In the current environment it's essential that we provide certainty. So we'll be doing that for departments and all of the nations of the UK by setting budgets for next year, with a total focus on tackling COVID and delivering our Plan for Jobs.

'Long-term investment in our country's future is the right thing to do, especially in areas which are the cornerstone of our society like the NHS, schools and infrastructure.'

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has called for reform of 'inflexible business rates' as businesses continue to struggle through the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

A third of firms say they need government support to survive the next six months, according to a survey of ICAEW members.

The survey found that three-quarters of businesses had accessed one of the government's loan or support schemes during the pandemic, while 63% had furloughed employees and 48% had deferred VAT payments.

Business was down at 62% of firms and 31% expect to make redundancies over the next six months, the survey suggested.

Commenting on the findings, Iain Wright, Director of Business and Industrial Strategy at the ICAEW, said: 'With the latest restrictions casting a new black cloud over businesses that were beginning to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic, it's clear that more intervention will be needed from the government.

'In particular, some struggling companies could fail when faced with inflexible business rates bills. Reducing the business rates multiplier would bring down the cost of this charge, and therefore lessen the burden on companies at this critical time.

'Although the whole economy is suffering, it is striking that the economic effects of the pandemic affect some sectors with much more brutal damage than others.'

A survey carried out by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has found that confidence amongst small firms has been in negative territory since July 2018.

The FSB's Small Business Index (SBI), which tests small firms' business confidence levels, recently posted a ninth consecutive negative reading.

The SBI, which polled 1,500 UK firms, showed that the confidence figure for the third quarter of 2020 stands at -32.6, down 28 points when compared to the second quarter of 2020.

Just 34% of those surveyed at the end of last month expect their performance to improve over the coming three months, the FSB said. 66% of businesses expect their performance to worsen. 

'Short memories are common in a crisis, but we must not forget that small firms were already under the cosh thanks to political uncertainty, rising costs and creaking infrastructure well before the Spring,' said Mike Cherry, National Chairman of the FSB.

'The Chancellor made some very welcome adjustments to support measures . . . , and it's critical that the new Job Support Scheme is straightforward to use, the self-employed can access the help they require and local authority cash grants reach as many of those in need as possible as swiftly as possible.'

A report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that significant levels of furlough fraud occurred during the first few months of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Employers committed furlough fraud if they claimed furlough payments but kept employees working for them against Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) rules. According to the NAO, HMRC's fraud hotline received more than 10,000 reports of furlough fraud.

A survey carried out by the NAO found that 9% of employees worked during lockdown at the request of their employer, against the rules of the CJRS. However, employees would not have known if their employer was part of the government furlough scheme unless their employer had informed them.

Commenting on the matter, Gareth Davies, Head of the NAO, said: 'Indications are that the schemes helped to protect jobs in the short-term, but it is also clear that many other people have lost earnings and have not been able to access support.

'It appears that the scale of fraud and error could be considerable, particularly for the furlough scheme.

'HMRC could have done more to make clear to employees whether their employer was part of the furlough scheme. In future, the departments should do more while employment support schemes are running to protect employees and counter acts of fraud.'