Grant pay-outs rapidly under way

The Council has now paid out over £86 million worth of grant funding to around 7,000 eligible businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19.

The team is currently processing millions of pounds of business grants having automated its processes this week to deal with the large volumes.

Leader of Birmingham City Council, Cllr Ian Ward, said: “Officers are working extremely hard to get these grants out to Birmingham businesses and I'm pleased that we have now made significant progress.

"We recognise and appreciate that this is a matter of real urgency and businesses can help us get these payments out as quickly as possible by ensuring that we have their most up to date details.”

In addition to addressing the large back log of enquiries, the team must also carry out post-payment checks on all businesses, to ensure that payments have been made in accordance with the eligibility criteria.

Eligible businesses do not need to apply for these grants; the money will be paid automatically based upon the data that we hold.

Businesses are urged to ensure they have supplied their most up to date bank and contact details which can be done online.

The Government’s COVID-19 support grants have been issued to local authorities across the country with Birmingham’s Grant allocation totalling more than £231 million.

Processing of grant payments began on 6 April 2020. The council is also asking to allow up to 21 days from this date to wait for funding to be paid and for businesses to regularly check their bank accounts.

For those businesses who automatically qualify (small business, retail, leisure or hospitality grants), payments will be made in phases depending upon existing data held by the council to verify eligibility, with businesses encouraged to speed up the process by supplying bank, business and correspondence details through the online form.