UK Government Wage Subsidies for Businesses

So you heard about UK Government Wage Subsidies. But what does it mean?

As a small business owner in the UK, wage subsidies are critical to the success of your business, especially if you are hiring employees.

Why?

Wage Subsidy programmes are designed to help unemployed people who are having a difficult time finding full time work due to a lack of skills or work experience. The UK government steps in to help and asks small business owners to provide employment to these individuals in need, and the “wage subsidy” programme provides temporary wage subsidies to the employers who decide to hire and provide work experience and skill development to those eligible scheme candidates.

In other words, if you are a small business owner – the UK government can provide you with money to help you hire staff (but that staff must meet the programme criteria).

Before you jump for joy and think that you can go out and hire 10 new employees who will work for you cheap and have the UK government pay for it – it just doesn’t work that way.

As a small business owner/employer, you must meet some eligibility requirements such as:

• You must be a registered business with a legal business name and number
• You must have been in business for at least one year
• You must have a position to fill that is normally part of your business operations (no new positions)
• You must confirm that the employee would not have been hired without a wage subsidy
• You must offer a full time position with a minimum of 35 working hours per week
• You must offer the opportunity of long-term employment
• You must provide reasonable and competitive wages

If you meet the above criteria and you are ready to take advantage of hiring staff with a Wage Subsidy Scheme, be sure that you are following these rules as well:

• Be committed to training the employee for the position
• The duration and rate of the wage will be directly related to the amount of training required for the employee to get the skills necessary to be successful in the position you will provide.
• You will have to provide regular pay cheques on set pay days and the Wage Subsidy Scheme provider will reimburse the negotiated amount on a monthly basis
• You will be required to submit monthly reports to the Wage Subsidy Scheme with regards to the employees hours, wages and to commit to two on-site monitors by the programme staff during the wage subsidy period.
• The employer makes the final decision to accept or decline the employee referred

If you think you have what it takes to participate in a wage subsidy scheme and believe that you could benefit from hiring and training staff for your small business in the UK, be sure to take advantage of our Funding Database where you can find wage subsidies, government grants, government loans, tax incentives and private funding programmes that can be the perfect funding option for your small business.

What are some purposes of Wage Subsidies?

*Please note that not all wage subsidy schemes are the same and not everyone may be eligible. The below are just a few examples of wage subsidy schemes available in the UK (in specific regions).