It quickly became apparent after the announcement of the government’s Covid Support Payment that the date comparator period would mean that many operators would be ineligible to access the support. The Association has raised our concerns, challenging this since the announcement. Through our engagement with the Minister of Finance’s office, Treasury and in collaboration with other business organisations, our concerns have been heard with the announcement of a change to the date criteria.
You can read the Government’s announcement of the change here.
There will now be two time periods against which you can compare your current revenue to be eligible for the payment.
- The original period announced on Monday (5 January 2022 to 15 February 2022) and
- A new comparison to 5 January 2021 to 15 February 2021. The alternative option covers a period when all of New Zealand was at Alert Level 1.
We know that this change will not provide every business with the ability to access the support, particularly as the January period is seasonally quiet for some regions and some businesses are traditionally closed over this period. We would have preferred the date comparator to be compared to a ‘normal trading period’ as this would mean many more members would be able to access help. However, this is a compromise and feedback from members has been that it will mean more are now eligible than before, particularly with having the two date options to consider when assessing the 7 consecutive days of revenue decline.
Other eligibility criteria:
- A business is eligible if they can show a 40 percent or greater drop in a seven day period since 16 February this year compared against a typical seven day period in one of the timeframes above. The Association had also argued for the revenue decline to be set at 30 percent, however, there has been no movement on this at this stage.
- Unfortunately applications to apply for the support, using the new date comparison will not be available until 14 March, however businesses will be able to use this option to apply for each of the three payments. Businesses can apply for the CSP using the original criteria, with applications for the first payment open on February 28, with payments starting from March 1.
- The first payment will be open for application for at least six weeks, so even if a business is not eligible right now, they may find they become eligible during this six week period.
- It will be available on a fortnightly basis for six weeks, meaning three payments in total, each of which needs to be applied for separately.
- The payment amount is:
- $4000 per business
- plus $400 per full-time employee, capped at 50 FTEs or $24,000.
The applications will be processed through the IRD website from 28 February, 2022. Click here for more information and full eligibility criteria.
The change from Government comes as a result of our advocacy work on behalf of the industry. We are pushing for better outcomes for members, and the Government is responding to our challenges.