As the impacts of COVID-19 continue, the Federal Government has expanded plans for its JobKeeper program and introduced new incentives to support businesses and employees.
Here's what we know about the JobKeeper changes so far:
- JobKeeper will continue to be available to eligible businesses (including eligible business participants) and not-for-profit organisations until 28 March 2021.
- Eligible businesses will have to suffer the requisite decline (no change to percentages) based on actual GST turnover (rather than projected GST turnover) to remain eligible.
- JobKeeper payments will now be tiered, with part-time workers receiving a lower payment than full-time workers.
- The Commissioner will have discretion to extend the time an entity has to pay employees in order to meet the wage condition, so that entities have time to first confirm their eligibility for the JobKeeper payments.
The Federal Government has also announced plans to extend its small business COVID-19 loans scheme until June next year, with changes due to come into effect on 1 October 2020.
The state governments have come to the table too. The Victorian Government has announced a $5,000 grant for businesses within Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire that are affected by the return to ‘Stay at Home Restrictions’. This grant is currently open for applications and closes on 19 August.
The NSW government has a grant for up to $3,000. The key criteria for this grant is that the business must be in an industry specifically noted as highly impacted, have less than 20 employees, payroll below $900,000 and have a 30% decline in turnover.
Please visit the BlueRock COVID-19 web page for more information about the schemes mentioned above and other supports available for your business.