Australian Government to keep Australia Running During the Coronavirus.
The Australian Government will be paying $1,500 per fortnight towards to the wages for many Australian workers, from today, 30th March 2020.
There are some conditions, and it will not apply to everyone.
- The payment is made to the Employer, NOT the employee.
- The Employer only gets the payment towards workers who were with the company on 1st March 2020, and have been in their employment for the last 12 months.
- The Employer only gets the payment if their business income has dropped by 30%.
- This payment is for a period of 6 months.
- To be eligible, an employee must be an Australian citizen, the holder of a permanent visa, a Protected Special Category Visa Holder, a non-protected Special Category Visa Holder who has been residing continually in Australia for 10 years or more, or a Special Category (Subclass 444) Visa Holder.
- Eligible employers who have stood down their employees before the commencement of this scheme will be able to participate. Employees that are re-engaged by a business that was their employer on 1 March 2020 will also be eligible.
Some businesses whose income has risen, will not need the subsidy, and therefore are not eligible.
Employers must elect to participate in the scheme. They will need to make an application to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and provide supporting information demonstrating a downturn in their business.
This figure of $1,500 is based on being about 75% of the median wage. For some workers it will be much closer to 100% of the median wage.
On 30 March 2020, the Australian Government announced the $130 billion JobKeeper Payment to help keep Australians in jobs as we deal with the significant economic impact from the Coronavirus. This brings the Government’s total economic support for the economy to $320 billion across the forward estimates, representing 16.4 per cent of annual GDP.
https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus
Fact Sheet (PDF): treasury.gov.au/…/Fact_sheet_supporting_businesses_1.pdf