If a business has already received the original wage subsidy lump sum, they are required to continue to use that funding to pay employees for the full 12-week duration as agreed to in the initial application.

Pending applications made prior to 3pm Friday 27 March 2020 will be assessed against the original criteria of the wage subsidy scheme. Only applications received from 4pm on 27 March 2020 will have new criteria and obligations applied.

The original scheme was capped at $150,000 per business, which meant that some larger businesses couldn’t claim for all their workers, but this cap has been removed. There have been no further modifications to this criteria which means the modified scheme is also uncapped.;

Businesses can make new claims for any employees that they did not apply for under the original scheme.

Once you receive the subsidy:

• You must retain the employees for the full period (12 weeks) you apply for.
• You must use your best endeavours to pay at least 80% of each named employee’s ordinary wage or salary that you apply for;
• Where paying the employee 80% is not possible, for example where all business activity has ceased, then you must pass on at least the whole value of the wage subsidy to each affected worker. Note: if the worker’s income is normally less than the subsidy, they can be paid their normal salary

If employees that you receive the wage subsidy leave or other changes occur in your business that affect your eligibility for the wage subsidy, the link to repaying the subsidy is below. We recommend you talk to us before filling in this form.

https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/products/a-z-benefits/covid-19-support.html#null

Wage Subsidy Record Keeping

Please keep notes of any conversations and calculations you have done prior to applying for the wage subsidy that could support you have done the following:

• Decline in of 30% in actual/predicted revenue compared to the same month for the prior year (this one will probably be easier to show in hind sight).
• The decline in revenue is due to COVID-19
• Details of active steps taken to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 (contacting bank, advisor, industry association)
• Correspondence with staff that you applied for the wage subsidy and updating them of pay during lockdown etc.

In the following months we will need to gather this information and have it saved on file should work and income do an audit on your eligibility for the wage subsidy

Contact Us for more info.