Applications re-open for £500 COVID support grants

Published: 26 April 2021

Derby City Council is re-opening applications for a £500 Covid-19 support grant to the city’s licensed self-employed hackney carriage and private minicab drivers for one week only. 

Eligible self-employed drivers who already  applied for the ‘one-off’ grant in the previous window will not be eligible to apply again but those drivers who have not claimed for support previously are invited to apply for the £500 one-off support grant which utilises funds from the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.

Support for licensed hackney carriage and private minicab drivers was initially available as a one-off coronavirus (COVID-19) support grant of £250 available to eligible self-employed drivers impacted by the November 2020 lockdown. Derby City Council then launched a second round of £250 COVID-19 support grants to the city’s licensed hackney carriage and private minicab drivers for the current lockdown that began on 5 January 2021. In this application window drivers will be considered for both £250 payments at the same time giving a total potential award of £500 to eligible drivers.

The strict window for applications is 26 April 2021 to 5pm on 4 May 2021. Please note no new applications will be accepted after this date and we do not expect to re-open the scheme again after this closure.

Drivers will be asked to provide details of their Taxi driver licence and vehicle permits, which both must be with Derby City Council, amongst other supporting information.

Simon Riley, Strategic Director of Corporate Resources said:

We are aware that there were a number of drivers who missed the previous window in February and so we have agreed to open the grant up to applications for a final short window.

We hope that any drivers who have failed to apply previously are able to get their applications in quickly and we will get payments processed as soon as possible.

Business, Health