With the Commonwealth government announcing changes to their support payments to individuals, we thought it would be a good idea to give an update on what’s on offer, eligibility and how to access it. The extended lockdown in NSW has resulted in a rethinking of the eligibility and amounts for the Covid-19 Disaster Payment, while the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment remains unchanged. Here’s a summary of the key points for both types of payments.

JobKeeper is a wage subsidy being a fixed payment of $1,500 per fortnight for fortnights starting 30 March 2020 and ending 27 September 2020. The subsidy is to be paid to an eligible business which is then passed on to an eligible employee. The JobKeeper scheme recognises that certain participants in a business, such as a sole trader, a partner in a partnership, a beneficiary of a trust and a director or shareholder in a company are also affected by the economic downturn caused by the Coronavirus. Accordingly, in order to provide a benefit to such business participants, the Jobkeeper scheme has been extended.

What is JobKeeper? JobKeeper is a wage subsidy being a fixed payment of $1,500 per fortnight for fortnights starting 30 March 2020 and ending 27 September 2020. The subsidy to be paid to an eligible business which is then passed on to an eligible employee. The payment must have already been passed on to the employee in full for the business to be eligible for the payment. Once in the scheme an employer cannot elect for some eligible employees to be covered by the scheme and not others.

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