Covid-19: Director only update 2020-04-06

this is just a quick note to say that the government have updated their guidance here on furloughing of company directors, confirming they will be allowed to be furloughed:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Company Directors As office holders, salaried company directors are eligible to be furloughed and receive support through this scheme. Company directors owe duties to their company which are set out in the Companies Act 2006. Where a company (acting through its board of directors) considers that it is in compliance with the statutory duties of one or more of its individual salaried directors, the board can decide that such directors should be furloughed. Where one or more individual directors’ furlough is so decided by the board, this should be formally adopted as a decision of the company, noted in the company records and communicated in writing to the director(s) concerned. Where furloughed directors need to carry out particular duties to fulfil the statutory obligations they owe to their company, they may do so provided they do no more than would reasonably be judged necessary for that purpose, for instance, they should not do work of a kind they would carry out in normal circumstances to generate commercial revenue or provides services to or on behalf of their company. This also applies to salaried individuals who are directors of their own personal service company (PSC).

Effectively this means the government will pay 80% of the salary of company directors that have temporarily ceased to trade due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Unfortunately there is nothing available for loss of dividends so the amount to be reimbursed will be quite limited in most cases.

The government also advise you to look into Universal Credit in order to supplement your income through this difficult period.