COVID-19 – Latest Update on Business Financial Support

Applications for the wage subsidy, resurgence support payment, leave support payment, short-term absence payment and the small business cashflow loan are all open now. 
 
The wage subsidy, leave support payment and short-term absence payment are all employee payments available and you cannot get more than one of these payments for the same employee at the same time.

This differs to the resurgence support payment which is a payment to business owners to help them meet business costs. You can apply for both the RSP and an employee payment.
 
The small business cashflow loan (SBCL) is a one off repayable loan available to meet business costs also. These support packages are explained further below:

WAGE SUBSIDY

Applications are open for two weeks.
 
The payment will cover a two week period at the rate of:

  • $600 a week for each full-time employee retained (20 hours a week or more)
  • $359 a week for each part-time employee retained (less than 20 hours a week)

It is important that you first read the declaration before applying for the wage subsidy.  Important points included in the declaration are:

  • Your business meets the revenue decline test which for a standard trading business means your business has had, or you are predicting will have, a decline in revenue of at least 40% over the period 17 August 2021 to 30 August 2021 that is attributable to the effect the move to Alert Level 4 on 17 August 2021 when compared to a typical 14-day consecutive period of revenue in the six weeks immediately prior to the move to Alert Level 4 on 17 August 2021.
  • For seasonal businesses a drop of at least 40% over the same period compared to the same 14 consecutive days in 2020 or 2019
  • You will prepare and retain evidence to support this declaration including the drop in revenue
  • Use your best endeavours to pay at least 80 per cent of each named employee’s ordinary wages or salary and pay at least the full amount of the subsidy to each named employee
  • You will not make any changes to your obligations under any employment agreement, including to rates of pay, hours of work and leave entitlements, without the written agreement of the relevant employees
  • You will discuss this application with the named employees and obtain consent from them – employee privacy statement found here.

For the full declaration details, please read here.

LEAVE SUPPORT SCHEME

The leave support scheme is for employees who must self-isolate and cannot work from home. This payment provides a two-week lump sum payment.
 
The Leave Support Scheme is paid as a 2-week lump sum per eligible employee and is paid at a flat rate of:
 

  • $600 a week for full-time workers who were working 20 hours or more a week
  • $359 a week for part-time workers who were working less than 20 hours a week.

SHOR-TERM ABSENCE PAYMENT

The short term absence payment provides a one-off payment for workers who must miss work due to a COVID-19 test and cannot work from home.

This is a one-off payment of $359 for each eligible worker. You can only apply for it once, for each eligible worker, in any 30-day period.

RESURGENCE PAYMENT SUPPORT (RSP)

On Tuesday 17 August, the Minister of Finance announced that the Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) would be made available to businesses and organisations affected by the 17 August Alert level 4 increase. Unlike the wage subsidy scheme, the RSP does not have to be applied directly to employees but businesses can use the funds to cover other business costs.

Applications are now open. (Click on the button below to apply).

To be eligible, a business or organisation must have experienced at least a 30% drop in revenue or a 30% decline in capital-raising ability over a 7-day period, due to the increased COVID-19 Alert level.  This decrease in revenue or capital-raising ability is compared with a typical 7-day revenue period in the 6 weeks prior to the increase from Alert level 1.

The payment you will receive will be the lesser of:

  • $1,500 plus $400 per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee, up to a maximum of 50 FTEs
  • four times (4x) the actual revenue decline experienced by the applicant.

Other eligibility can apply for full criteria can be found here; Inland Revenue – RSP eligibility

How do you apply?

Businesses have to apply through their MyIR account at IRD and if you don’t already have a myIR account, you can create one.

You will need the following information to apply:

  1. New Zealand Business Number (NZBN).
    The NZBN is a globally unique identifier for each New Zealand business. When you have one it helps to speed up your interactions across Government.

    If you’re a registered company you’ll already have one. You can find it on the NZBN website in the search bar.
    If you’re self-employed, a sole trader, a partnership or a trust, and you don’t already have an NZBN  – apply for yours on the NZBN website here or get in touch and we can help you apply

Please note applying for a NZBN can take a few days so we recommend doing it now.

2. Employee details
If you’ve filed an employment information (EI) in the last 30 days leading up to the application, your employees’ name and IRD number will already be on the application. Otherwise, you’ll need to enter each employee’s name, IRD number, and whether they are a full or part time employee.

3. Bank account
If the bank account number you want the RSP paid into is different to the one IRD already holds, you need to provide the new number with your application. This must be a New Zealand bank account.

4. Revenue details
You’ll need to provide revenue details for the 7-day elevated alert level period and the 7-day comparison period.  Please get in touch if you need our help calculating this.  At this stage we are not sure whether you will be required to submit this information with the application or whether you will need to hold this information for a later date.

Once you have the above information you log into or register for myIR and once you’ve logged in, select “Apply for Resurgence Support” in “I want to…'” and follow the instructions on screen to complete your application.

Full details on how to apply can be found here; Inland Revenue – How to apply

More information on the RSP can be found here; Inland Revenue – RSP Information

If you need assistance applying or have any questions relating to the RSP please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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