Apprenticeship funding boost to expire

● Is your company considering taking on an apprentice as it begins to recover from the crisis? If so, it makes sense to take action sooner rather than later. The government is currently offering one-off incentives of £3,000 for each apprentice that employers take on, in addition to the usual £1,000 payment it makes available for such hires. However, this scheme will only operate until 30 September – and apprentices must start work before 30 November.

● If you run a business that took advantage of the furloughing scheme during the Covid-19 crisis, now is the time to check carefully that all your paperwork is in order. As the state begins to wind down pandemic support, HM Revenue & Customs is taking an increasingly aggressive stance on investigating potential frauds and mis-claims. The tax authority believes it may be able to reclaim as much as £1bn from businesses that did not make claims correctly, or from cases of outright fraud.

● Small companies in the UK are collectively owed £17.5bn in late payments, compared to just £12.9bn three years ago, new research suggests. The analysis, from Pay.UK and the Chartered Institute of Credit Management, says late payments soared during Covid-19, with small businesses routinely exploited by larger organisations struggling with their cashflows. The analysis suggests that government interventions, which have tended to focus on initiatives such as voluntary codes of conduct, have not protected small businesses in the way hoped.