06/03/2020

SBA Approving Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs)

What you need to know to apply for COVID-19 recovery assistance

Small businesses applied for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) in droves when they became available on March 30, 2020. Normally, these loans only provide assistance after natural disasters like tornadoes, wildfires or floods, but when President Donald Trump declared COVID-19 a nationwide emergency on March 13, the door opened for small businesses across the country to seek emergency financing. With uncertain prospects ahead, business owners saw the program’s maximum $10,000 advance as a way to tide their companies over until the effects of COVID-19 were under control. 

Unfortunately, the roll out of the program was much rougher than anticipated. A flood of applications overwhelmed the system and the Small Business Administration (SBA) stopped processing the first round of EIDLs after about two weeks. With the second round of funding, the money lasted just about a week before the SBA limited applications to agricultural businesses. 

Additionally, the SBA was completely silent for weeks on the status of the applications that were submitted. The advances, which were supposed to be sent within three days of applying, were delayed for weeks and adjusted to $1,000/employee or a $1,000 for the self-employed. 

Please select this link to read the complete article from Forbes.