A pub landlord trying to get hold of a Government grant to keep his business afloat was told to send in three months of unredacted bank statements.
Kyle Michael, owner of The White Swan pub in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said this would be against guidance from his bank on data protection.
The 49-year-old protested to Buckinghamshire County Council, but an officer told him: ‘If the bank statement is not received, the grant will not be issued.’
Kyle Michael, 49, is the owner of The White Swan pub in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
He told MailOnline: ‘We made the application online as is required, filled out all the information required including company number registration etc.
‘We then received an email back from the council to say that they will only make payments direct into bank accounts, that they required three months backdated bank statements showing all transactions.
‘I understand that they would need to check sort code bank details etc, but they should not have access to daily transactions for a business, nor is it under the Government guidelines to do so.
‘I challenged Buckinghamshire Council and they came back saying ‘send us the payments, or you don’t get the money’.
The White Swan in Aylesbury is losing £5,000 in revenue each week while it is closed
‘I’ve had to send them, but my concern is that this is unnecessary collection of information and it should be destroyed immediately.
‘I’ve spoken to other businesses who have had the same situation. More importantly we’re being asked to send it via email, which is insecure.’
Mr Michaels continued: ‘We have zero income from the pubs being closed. Of course we abided by the Government advice immediately and closed.’
He said they have applied for job retention scheme but are having to wait for those payments, which are likely to be paid in three weekly arrears – and they are expecting more information on this over the next fortnight.
A Buckinghamshire County Council officer told Mr Michael in an email yesterday (above) that he needed to send over his bank statements or ‘the grant will not be issued’
Mr Michaels had emailed the council to ask why he needed to send the bank statements
Mr Michaels has been the landlord of the pub for five years, but has been in the pub industry for 32 years.
He said the pub’s weekly turnover is about £5,000 – so every week they are losing that amount.
He added that the £10,000 payment they are going to receive from the grant will only keep the business going for two weeks, and they will be claiming on the 80 per cent wages scheme for five staff.
Government guidance states that business owners need to send in management accounts, cash flow forecast, business plan, historic accounts and details of assets – but does not mention bank statements.
Councillor Martin Tett, leader of Buckinghamshire Council, told MailOnline: ‘Supporting businesses is a top priority for the council and we’re working closely with our local businesses to help them during this difficult time.
‘We are doing everything we can to make this process as simple as possible and our finance team are working tirelessly to process all the applications and make payments.
‘We are not routinely asking for bank statements as part of the arrangements for paying out these grants, but we may ask for supporting evidence where any queries or discrepancies are identified and will do everything we can do make this process as painless as possible, keeping, as always, to data protection principles.’