Day 14 - Wednesday 1st April
Today is my daughter's birthday, and also the first day she is allowed outside after her son developed a cough and a fever that triggered 14 days isolation for the family. He has recovered well and they are showing no signs of infection, so they spend a little time outside and she ventures to the local shop for supplies, only to find it stressful because people weren't observing social distancing.
I catch up with my PAYE today, as the tax year is about to finish. I use the HMRC's software and regularly back it up but unfortunately when I tried to restore it after my PC returned from a factory reset, it didn't work. I have records of the year's salary payments but the software no longer contains them and it won't let me switch to the next tax year until everything's up to date. Under current circumstances I see no chance the I can get any tech support, so I work out for myself how to record the information without duplicating what it has reported to HMRC. It seems to work.
It appears that as a company director drawing salary through PAYE I can furlough myself and claim back 80% of salary up to £2,500 per month from the government. Since my pipeline has entirely dried up this seems the best course of action. But with no revenue coming in, it won't be long before there's no cash to pay myself. The company's overheads are very low so there's no problem covering other costs but also very little chance of generating any income. The scheme to reclaim under the government's job retention scheme isn't set up yet, though.
I've managed to get an online delivery slot! For tomorrow! It's from Iceland, whose range is more limited than the other supermarkets but they have most of what we need in stock - at least, when I order it anyway. Now that the pandemic is peaking here I'm trying to avoid the need for hubby to go out to the shops, even though he's happy to do so - it just seems like an unnecessary risk because of the number of people he'll encounter. Even with social distancing, the virus can be transmitted on door handles, trolleys, chip and pin machines and so on. Fortunately he's both well informed on viruses, having studied biology, and also a bit of a clean freak, but I just don't want to take any risks.
After a dinner of stir-fry we meet daughter and son-in-law online for escape room games. It's something we enjoy in real life and often do as a family for celebrations. It's not quite the same, but we still have fun and the small victories are good for morale. We stay online chatting for ages after; my daughter admits she has struggled with not being able to see people on her birthday and hasn't liked constantly being reminded in every greeting that things are not normal. I suggest she tries to think of it as if they are in another country - her sister is in Australia and they stay in touch through facetime regularly so that has become normal for them. She's also having nightmares about her best friend, who is a nurse. The one thing they don't have to worry about is money - she has just started a new job that she is doing from home while their offices are closed, and he is one of a small percentage of staff his company has not furloughed. But it's a struggle for them to juggle all their working hours alongside taking care of my grandson, who would otherwise be at nursery.
Today I am grateful that my daughter and son are well taken care of financially.
I catch up with my PAYE today, as the tax year is about to finish. I use the HMRC's software and regularly back it up but unfortunately when I tried to restore it after my PC returned from a factory reset, it didn't work. I have records of the year's salary payments but the software no longer contains them and it won't let me switch to the next tax year until everything's up to date. Under current circumstances I see no chance the I can get any tech support, so I work out for myself how to record the information without duplicating what it has reported to HMRC. It seems to work.
It appears that as a company director drawing salary through PAYE I can furlough myself and claim back 80% of salary up to £2,500 per month from the government. Since my pipeline has entirely dried up this seems the best course of action. But with no revenue coming in, it won't be long before there's no cash to pay myself. The company's overheads are very low so there's no problem covering other costs but also very little chance of generating any income. The scheme to reclaim under the government's job retention scheme isn't set up yet, though.
I've managed to get an online delivery slot! For tomorrow! It's from Iceland, whose range is more limited than the other supermarkets but they have most of what we need in stock - at least, when I order it anyway. Now that the pandemic is peaking here I'm trying to avoid the need for hubby to go out to the shops, even though he's happy to do so - it just seems like an unnecessary risk because of the number of people he'll encounter. Even with social distancing, the virus can be transmitted on door handles, trolleys, chip and pin machines and so on. Fortunately he's both well informed on viruses, having studied biology, and also a bit of a clean freak, but I just don't want to take any risks.
After a dinner of stir-fry we meet daughter and son-in-law online for escape room games. It's something we enjoy in real life and often do as a family for celebrations. It's not quite the same, but we still have fun and the small victories are good for morale. We stay online chatting for ages after; my daughter admits she has struggled with not being able to see people on her birthday and hasn't liked constantly being reminded in every greeting that things are not normal. I suggest she tries to think of it as if they are in another country - her sister is in Australia and they stay in touch through facetime regularly so that has become normal for them. She's also having nightmares about her best friend, who is a nurse. The one thing they don't have to worry about is money - she has just started a new job that she is doing from home while their offices are closed, and he is one of a small percentage of staff his company has not furloughed. But it's a struggle for them to juggle all their working hours alongside taking care of my grandson, who would otherwise be at nursery.
Today I am grateful that my daughter and son are well taken care of financially.
Comments
Post a Comment