This previous summer season marked the return to stay live shows and film theaters for many people. However, the pandemic created vital financial hardships for these venues and plenty of others within the arts and leisure trade. For instance, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment price for the trade reached 47% in April 2020, and remained elevated into 2021.
To assist these companies, Congress created the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program, which offered $14.6 billion in monetary help to leisure companies adversely affected by COVID-19.
Right this moment’s WatchBlog publish seems to be at our new report on who this system helped, and the teachings it gives for future emergency help packages.
Who obtained cash and the way a lot?
SVOG funding was accessible to a focused group of companies, together with stay leisure producers, organizations, and venues. Companies may use these grants to cowl working bills reminiscent of payroll, lease or mortgage funds, and utility funds. To be eligible for this system, leisure companies needed to have misplaced at the very least 25% of their income on account of the pandemic.
This system was solely open to candidates for a brief period of time—from April to August 2021. However throughout that brief time, greater than 17,000 companies utilized. The Small Enterprise Administration (SBA), which runs this system, awarded $14.6 billion in grants to over 13,000 of the candidates. Most denied purposes didn’t meet the grant program’s eligibility necessities.
Grant quantities had been primarily based on every enterprise’s pre-pandemic income, capped at $10 million. Over 90% of grant recipients had been small companies with 50 or fewer workers.
How can SBA higher guarantee emergency funding reaches eligible companies?
Nationwide, greater than 30 million small companies skilled decreased revenues or closures due to COVID-19. Due to this fact, SBA had the problem of offering help shortly to leisure venues. However appearing shortly may make this system extra susceptible to fraud and associated points.
We’ve got reported on challenges SBA confronted implementing these packages, together with fraud and insufficient communication.
Our evaluate of the SVOG program revealed that whereas this system was higher managed in some elements than another SBA COVID aid packages, SBA may enhance its communications and buyer help, and enhance its efforts to watch dangers to this system, reminiscent of id theft.
In our new report, we made two suggestions to SBA that might assist enhance communication with companies that search emergency help and improve the company’s efforts to determine and tackle fraud. Discover out extra by studying our new report.
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