What we know so far…
Original Post: 13 July 2021
Last Updated: 14 July 2021
Late this afternoon, The Federal Government announced a range of new support measures aimed at providing additional support to businesses and households affected by the current NSW lock-down and restrictions throughout the state.
Here’s what we know so far, with more to come as details become available.
Return of the Cashflow Boost for Business
The new measure will be available from next week- the fourth week of Greater Sydney’s lockdown- and will see eligible businesses receive a payment of between $1,500 and $10,000 per week.
It will be available to both non-employing and employing entities in NSW, including not for profits, with an annual turnover between $75,000 and $50 million.
To be eligible, businesses will need to demonstrate that their turnover has reduced by 30% or more over a more over a 2-week period, compared with the same period in 2019.
The payment rate will be based on 40% of the business’ NSW payroll payments. Non-employing businesses, such as sole traders will see the payment capped at $1,000 each week.
To receive the payment, the business must maintain their full time, part time and long term casual staffing level as of 13 July 2021.
No information is available yet as to the process for applying for, or receiving, the payments. The original cash flow boost scheme was delivered as a credit to businesses through their regular BAS lodgement system. We expect this mechanism may apply again this time around, but await more information.
It is expected that the new payment will cost half a billion dollars a week, which will be funded equally by the NSW government and the Commonwealth.
Disaster Payments Boosted for Households
COVID disaster relief payments are provided by the Federal Government where individuals have lost work as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.
An increase to the COVID disaster payment has been announced, from $500 to $600 per week for individuals who ordinarily work more than 20 hours each week, and from $325 to $375 for those who have lost between 8 and 20 hours a week.
The payment’s eligibility criteria has also been broadened to include all residents of NSW, not just declared hot-spots (e.g. Greater Sydney).
COVID disaster relief payments are administered by the Federal Government through Services Australia. More information is available here.
The NSW Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, has also announced additional state support to both residential and commercial tenants as part of the announcement. The Treasurer announced a land tax rebate to commercial landlords in a bid to stave off commercial evictions.
The state will also provide residential tenancy protections by ruling out any evictions for the next 60 days for workers who have seen an income reduction of at least 25 per cent, and are “doing it tough”. The same land tax rebates will be made to residential landlords, too.
NSW Business Support Grant
The NSW Government had previously announced a small business support package, for businesses affected by the current Greater-Sydney lockdown. This was a tiered grant of up to $10,000, which has been increased to a maximum of $15,000.
Three different grant amounts will be available depending on the decline in turnover experienced during the restrictions:
- $7,500 for a decline of 30% or more
- $10,500 for a decline of 50% or more
- $15,000 for a decline of 70% or more.
This Grant is administered and paid by the NSW Government. Full eligibility criteria is yet to be made available, and applications are not yet being accepted. The NSW Government are yet to confirm if this grant program will continue to be offered, in light of the more recent announcements made today.
More information can be accessed here.
More Info?
These announcements have only been made this afternoon, and as always, the devil is in the detail. We will continue to provide updates as more information is made available.
If your business has been affected by the recent NSW lock-downs and restrictions, we will be working with you over the coming weeks to make sure you are assessed and apply for all eligible support schemes available.
Update 14 July 2021
The following downloads provide an update as at 14 July 2021:
Support Measures for Business
Support Measures for Individuals
