Covid cash splash for 3.3million workers as struggling businesses are given $100,000-a-week grants after Sydney’s lockdown is extended by a month
Struggling NSW businesses will be able to get increased grants of up to $100,000 a week as Sydney’s lockdown is extended for another month.
The JobSaver payments to companies which suffer a 30 per cent revenue reduction due to restrictions were previously worth up to $10,000.
Some 460,000 companies employing 3.3million workers are expected to get the increased grants.
Struggling NSW businesses will be able to get grants of up to $100,000 a week as Sydney’s lockdown is extended for another month
Businesses must not sack their staff or they will be disqualified from getting the cash.
The NSW jobless rate was just 5.1 per cent in June but there are fears the lockdown will see the unemployment ranks swell.
Commonwealth Bank predicts about 300,000 jobs will be list and NSW’s unemployment rate will peak at 5.6 per cent in October before reducing to 5.2 per cent at the end of the year.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the additional support would help keep business afloat.
‘We know these restrictions are tough but necessary to get the current situation under control and that is why we are coming to the table to help businesses and individuals with more financial support,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
NSW’s request to reinstate JobKeeper, the wage subsidy scheme which paid struggling companies $1,500 per worker per fortnight in 2020, was denied by the Commonwealth.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the federal government’s $600 per week pandemic disaster payment was faster than JobKeeper and better targeted to people who need it.
Cafe workers have been left without work due to the lockdown which has closed restaurants
‘The payments are being made in about 40 minutes,’ he said.
‘They are also targeted because they are based on the number of hours lost rather than the turnover reduction of the business that you work for.
‘Also, the net has been cast wider with all casuals being eligible for these payments,’ he said.
The payments of $600 a week for people who lose more than 20 hours and $375 for people who lose 8-20 hours will continue as long as lockdowns last, the government has said.
Mr Fyrdenberg said JobKeeper was a national scheme set up in early 2020 when the unemployment rate was expected to skyrocket to 15 per cent.
It required companies to take out loans from banks, pay their workers and then get re-reimbursed by the government weeks later.
By contrast, the pandemic disaster payment goes straight into the workers’ bank accounts.
On top of that payment, there is business financial support worth up to 40 per cent of a company’s wage bill that requires companies to maintain headcount.