Here are a few COVID-19 Updates and reminder’s you may find useful:
Redundancies
The Government announced a $570million scheme called the COVID Income Relief Payment. This is aimed at people who have lost their job due to the impact of COVID-19 between 1 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, to help people adjust and find new employment.
You can apply from 8 June 2020, but you must meet a certain criteria. (see more about who can get it here).
It is paid for up to 12 week’s while the individual is unemployed and the amount is $490 a week for full-time work (30 hours or more week) and $250 for part-time work (15-29 hours a week). These payments will not be taxed.
If you are planning on making an employee redundant, and you’re unsure how to process this payment, you can find more information on this here.
Wage subsidy extension reminder
You will be able to apply for the wage subsidy extension from June 10 2020 but you must have had a 50% reduction in revenue for the 4 weeks prior to your application. Here are some more important details in case you missed our previous blogs:
• The subsidy extension is available from 10 June 2020 until 1 September 2020.
• It covers a period of 8 weeks per employee and is paid as a lump sum. The subsidy amounts per employee are the same as last time. ($585.80 for full time, and $350 for part time per week)
• If you applied and received the last subsidy, you cannot apply for the extension until the 12 weeks has finished.
• Your businesses must have suffered a drop in revenue of at least 50% for the 30 days before you apply, compared to the same period last year. For example, if the end of your last 12 week period was say 14 June 2020, to apply for this on the 15th of June, your revenue would have to have dropped by at least 50% for the period 14 May to 14 June, compared to last year. Make sure you compare your sales before you apply. Since this starts on 10 June 2020, you would not be able to compare sales for a date before 10 May 2020.
• You would need to submit a new application, which will be available through the MSD’s (Ministry of Social Development) website.
If you are still unsure if you should apply, feel free to contact us on 03 374 9393.
Government Small Business Cash Flow Loan applications are closing soon.
Applications for the Government Small Cash Flow Business Loan (of up to $100,000) are closing on 12 June 2020. You can read more details about this here. If you are still unsure if you should apply or not, please feel free to call Louise on 03 374 9393 to discuss this.
Gatherings
From midday today (29/05/2020), the amount of people that can attend gatherings increased from 10 to 100, yay!