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Article:

COVD-19 Financial Support Packages

04 March 2021

Jessica Powell & Leisa Kelsen |

COVID-19 Wage Subsidy

 

Revenue Decline Criteria:

  • 40% or more decline in revenue
  • over a consecutive 14-day period (between 28 February and 21 March)
  • compared to a typical 14-day period (between 4 January and 14 February 2021) (i.e., 6 weeks before the change in Alert Levels)

Payment rates will be:

  • $585.80 for people working 20 hours or more per week (full-time rate)
  • $350.00 for people working less than 20 hours per week (part-time rate)

The support will be made as two-weekly payments, for the duration of Alert Level 3 or 4 (rounded to the nearest fortnight), rather than for a fixed period.

Applications opened 1pm Thursday 4th March for businesses affected by the rise in COVID-19 Alert Levels on the 28th of February 2021

For more information and the other eligibility criteria for the scheme on COVID-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme – Resurgence Availability, please read our full article.

COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment

 

Revenue Decline Criteria:

  • 30% or more decline in revenue
  • over a consecutive 7-day period
  • when compared to a typical 7-day period in the 6 weeks prior to the alert level change
  • the revenue decline must be a direct result of an Alert Level escalation. It cannot be the general impacts of COVID-19 (often described in earlier schemes)

 

Please refer to Inland Revenue’s website here for further details on the revenue eligibility criteria.

The level of support available through the Resurgence Support Payment is the lesser of:

  • $1500 core business rate plus $400 per FTE Employee (Full-Time Equivalent Employee), up to a maximum of 50 FTE’s, OR
  • Four times the actual revenue drop experienced

Employees working up to 20 hours per week are considered part time (0.6 FTE). Employees working 20 hours or more per week are considered fulltime (1.0 FTE).

Applications open 7 days after the alert level increase and will remain open for one month after a nationwide return to alert level 1.

For more information and the other eligibility criteria for the scheme on COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment, please read our full article.

COVID-19 Leave Support Payment

 

Health Criteria:

(For applications made after 9am on 9 February 2021)

Employees must be self-isolating because they:

  • Are sick with COVID-19
  • Have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19
  • Are the parent or caregiver of a dependent who must self-isolate and that dependent requires you there to do so safely
  • Have been directed to self-isolate in accordance with the Health Act 1956
  • Are ‘higher risk’ if they contracted COVID-19 while there is community transmission
  • Have household member who is ‘higher risk’ if they contracted COVID-19 and must reduce the risk of transmitting to their household member

Payment rates will be:

  • $585.80 for people working 20 hours or more per week (full-time rate)
  • $350.00 for people working less than 20 hours per week (part-time rate)

The Leave Support Scheme will pay out for a fixed two weeks per employee (it is not possible to apply for less than this).

Applications for the Leave Support Scheme are open now. There are four main applications you can use:

  1. If you have people working for you
  2. If you do not have people working for you
  3. If you are a large employer (>100 employees)

Re-applying for the scheme click here.

For more information and the other eligibility criteria for the scheme on COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme, please read our full article.

COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment

 

Health Criteria:

  • Employee cannot work from home; and
  • will miss work while they stay at home awaiting COVID-19 test results

 

An eligible worker is staying home while they await:

  • their COVID-19 test result
  • the COVID-19 test result of a dependent (i.e., they are the parent or caregiver in this situation, and need to support the dependent while they stay home)
  • a household member or secondary contact of someone who is a close contact of a person with COVID-19, and the worker has been advised to stay at home while waiting for the close contact’s test results.

Payment rates will be:

A one-off payment of $350 will be made for each eligible worker. This is regardless of whether they work full-time or part-time.

You can apply for the STAP once for each eligible worker in any 30-day period, (unless a health official or doctor tells the worker to get another test).

The payment is made to the employer (including self-employed persons) to support them to pay their employees while they are unable to work.

Applications for the short-term absence payment scheme opened on 9 February 2021. Applications can be made up to 8 weeks after the test was taken for the eligible worker, provided the test was taken on or after 9 February 2021.

For more information and the other eligibility criteria for the scheme on COVID-19 Short-term Absence Payment & FAQs, please read our full article.


None of these apply to you?

Take a look at Inland Revenue’s Small Business Cash-Flow Loan Scheme and read our FAQ article.