Petition · past parliament

Give UK Small Businesses emergency funding in order to retain the jobs COVID-19

Rejected 13 signatures

What the petition asks

Release emergency funding in order to enable small businesses to pay the salaries of the employees who are eligible for the retention scheme! Support the promised job retention scheme! Enable the employers to keep their employees by paying the employees' the 80% salaries that you have promised!
Small businesses are in a very bad place as even if they want to retain their employees and do everything to allow them to access the PROMISED 80% pay, if they have no funds, they simply cannot save their jobs! Businesses are left on their own with employees looking at them hoping that they can save their jobs! due to Covid-19, the Government should set up an emergency fund to ensure they can retain their employees and to do that they need money to pay the 80% salaries the government promised!

Why it was rejected

The UK Government or Parliament was already taking the action it asked for.

Since you started your petition the Government has launched the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

We have published a number of petitions calling for increased support for small businesses, which you might like to sign:

Extend grants immediately to small businesses outside of SBRR: Extend grants immediately to small businesses outside of SBRR

VAT refunds for SMEs: VAT refunds for SMEs

Extend £10,000 small business grant to SMEs that do not have a property: Extend £10,000 small business grant to SMEs that do not have a property

Suspend VAT/Business Rates/PAYE Payments for three months amid outbreak COVID-19: Suspend VAT/Business Rates/PAYE Payments for three months amid outbreak COVID-19

Raise the (SBBR) small business COVID-19 grant to £25,000 help small businesses: Raise the (SBBR) small business COVID-19 grant to £25,000 help small businesses

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/

Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/

Timeline

28 Mar 2020 Petition opened for signatures
13 May 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 13
Status Rejected
Rejected 13 May 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.