I am sure that you will now be more than aware the British Business Bank have proven to be very unhelpful to small business owners over the past few months, especially when it comes to the Bounce Back Loan scheme.
They have sat back and watched as bank after bank closed their doors to new business account customers, and should have been badgering if not forcing as many of the banks who hadn’t even opened their doors to new customers for the duration of the scheme as yet to get those doors open.
In fact, the absolutely shocking way they have buried their head in the sand when it comes to the huge number of problems business owners have faced with that scheme, such as the “shared industry database” and the agonising problems for BBL applicants I have exposed over the months with that database that has caused no end of business owners to be declined a BBL for being listed upon it as having a Bounce Back Loan, albeit a imaginary one is utterly sickening.
You only have to look at the Twitter account of the British Business Bank to see they have gone all “wokey” recently, and seem more concerned about pushing their woke agenda on everyone rather than helping everyone, irrespective of their colour, creed or sexuality.
Anyway, as you now know, as of next week you are going to be able to top up your Bounce Back Loan. The maximum amount you can claim is 25% of your estimated turnover from January the 1st 2019 and December the 31st 2019 minus anything you have already claimed, and it is still capped at a maximum loan of some £50,000.
Now, I am aware the British Business Bank do appear to be three spoons, a knife and two forks short of being a full cutlery set, and as such am fearful that as they will be tasked with implementing the rules on those top-ups they will cock it up completely.
Therefore if one of their hard of thinking staff members reads this article, as I am sure they will, please be aware of the following points and implement them as part of the top-up rules.
Estimated Turnover
As the turnover was in most instances an estimate and were self-certified as being such, be aware those estimates can and will have probably changed, and as such those who wish to top up their loan should be permitted to re-estimate their turnover for the top up.
Therefore, for the purposes of topping up their Bounce Back Loans those who wish to do so should if required be allowed to re-estimate their turnover. No ifs or buts, estimates are by their very nature changeable. So, keep that in mind.
It is not up to you or individual lenders to tell any business owner what their projected/estimated turnover is, and you will face all manner of legal problems if you or any lender attempts to do so, especially if say a business owner when taking out their Bounce Back Loan underestimated their turnover and it turns out to be higher, and you haven’t given them access to the full amount they are entitled to.
So, think on.
Closed Accounts
As I fear you are away with the fairies sometimes, so dear BBB you are probably blissfully unaware that many of your lenders have approved Bounce Back Loans to their customers but after paying them out their loans have then decided for their own reasons to close the accounts of some customers.
Barclays and NatWest spring to mind, and as such the onus is on you British Business Bank to ensure such customers if not fraudulent can still top up their Bounce Back Loans with those lenders even if their accounts have been closed, often due to errors by those banks.
How you go about doing that is your problem not the applicants.
Fast Access to Top-Ups
In the middle of a lockdown no business owner waiting for a top up should be forced to wait more than just a few days at most to receive their Bounce Back Loan top up.
The process to do so should be straight forward and no one should be forced to have to jump through any hoops to get their loan topped up. Failure to allow those who want a top-up to get one in just a few days could result in business failures, so once again think on.
The lenders have a good week to get the systems updated to allow for top ups and it isn’t that hard of a task, so do not let them blag you it’s going to take weeks.
Feeder and Servicing Accounts
As some banks offer feeder type accounts, please ensure that no one who may have been paid out a Bounce Back Loan via such an account is going to have to apply for another one or any such nonsense to gain access to a top up.
Many people waited weeks if not months to set up a Feeder/Account and will certainly not want to wait weeks or months for another one for their top up. So, get that aspect of the top ups sorted out.
Lenders Who Ran Out of Money
Also, obviously Tide and Conister have “run out of money” well have reached their allocated lending limit, those customers who do want a top up with either of those lenders, or any others that have run out of funds, need to be catered for as well, and shouldn’t be declined a top up due to the lender not having funds available. How you correct that problem is up to you but correcting it is what you should be doing.
We will all be watching you British Business Bank, Rishi Sunak has listened and acted, we do not need you to fu*k it up.