As we all experience a new day in our ever changing business and personal way of life. We must all take time out to reflect, not only our own life and the lifes of our nearest and dearest, but those people around us who have no-one. We know of the impact the virus will have on the NHS now and in the coming weeks, what we must not lose sight of is the impact on eveyones mental health in the future.

Emjay are starting week 3 of working from home, I can see how this is impacting on running my practice. Things we take for granted, popping into the office when you want, going for a walk by the river with the dogs sitting down with colleagues for a chat and a coffee. Some people will say “Well you can work from home and your business will not be majorly impacted”, this would be true if Emjay just treated each client as an income stream. Yes we will still be required to keep up with the compliance work, however we do more than that. We are constantly deciphering the information and putting into plain english the options on the table.

Each and everyday our government reacts to an ever changing pandemic, we are seeing measures being intorduced that no one could have imagined and has never seen before. They are trying to announce support to alliviate the financial and mental anguish being experienced by so many many. Having spent 30 years in IT, I know the challenges ahead for government departments.

If we review the order of the financial support being provided we can see they are trying to support every person in the country. Some of us at the moment are not covered (Director/Shareholders, Serviced office business users). In order to support all individuals and businesses, time is required to work out how they can provide this support effectively.

I am sure there will be employers out there who see this as an opportunity to get some money from HM Government for “free”. I can assure you all this is not free money, before you go down this route look upon it this way “you are stealing” not from HM Government. You are stealing from your employees, you are stealing from your wifes/husbands, you are stealing from your children/ grandchildren/ great grandchildren /great great grandchildren.

In 2006 the country finally paid back the debt incurred during World War 2, forecasts are the amount we need to borrow to support the UK during this pandemic will be 3 – 4 times as much, our children/grandchildren will be paying for this long after we have gone.

It is very easy, during times like this, to become insular and only see the effect on you, take time to think about the impact on those working in

• NHS
• Emergency Services
• Food Production – Distribution
• Supermarkets

Stay At Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives