The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have updated us on what is happening with the JobKeeper program going forward after September.
Importantly, the current arrangements will remain in place through to September 25.
Beyond that date JobKeeper will still be available, (until March 2021), via a new two tier system and at a lower rate for those businesses who are eligible.
1. Will I be eligible?
- To apply for JobKeeper support for the quarter ending Dec 27 2020 (which will happen mid-late September 2020), a business will need to meet the required downturn (say 30%) for both the June 2020 and Sep 2020 quarters.
- To apply for the following quarter, ending Mar 28 2021, a business will need to meet the downturn (say 30%) for each of the June 2020, Sep 2020 and Dec 2020 quarters.
2. What are the changes going to be to the current JobKeeper payments?
After September 25, the current rate of $1,500 per employee payments will no longer apply.
In the next phases there will be two tiers of payments and reductions each quarter.
- The first level will be for people working 20 hours or more per week.
- The payments for these employees will be reduced to $1200 per fortnight for the Dec 2020 quarter and further reduced to $1000 per fortnight for the Mar 2021 quarter.
- The second level will be for people working less than 20 hours a week.
- The payments for these employees will be reduced to $750 per fortnight for the Dec 2020 quarter and further reduced to $650 per fortnight for the Mar 2021 quarter.
- This is in line with new changes to the JobSeeker payments.
The exact details around these changes are of course still to be legislated, and as a result subject to change, but this is what we know now.
We will keep you posted and I encourage you to contact us if you have any questions, big or small!