Small businesses contribute to local economies by bringing growth and innovation to the community in which the business is established. Small businesses also help stimulate economic growth by providing employment opportunities to people who may not be employable by larger corporations.

The Bounce Back Loan (BBL) and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) schemes were among the full range of business support measures have been made available to UK small businesses during the pandemic spread over the financial year 2020-21 and provided £79.3 Billion to struggling UK businesses.

These loan schemes were characterised with generous payment holidays and affordable rate of interest along with various options to restructure the loan during its existence. However, the terms ‘government-backed’ has always created confusion among the borrowers.

Since the closure of these schemes and last disbursements during March 2021, the time has now come where repayments are coming into effect after one year payment holidays. Most of the businesses who took these loans at the beginning of theses schemes have already started the repayments after considering different options available to them which include, ‘pay as you grow’, ‘interest only for 18 months (6 month in one stretch)’, ‘prolonged repayment time (10 years maximum)’ etc.

However, we have come across large number of queries where the businesses are struggling to settle the debt under the current circumstances even after full utilization of all the relaxations/benefits these loan carry.

Hence, if you are undergoing the same situation of being worried about how you are going to meet the repayments, you are among thousands of businesses under the same situation.