Employees Will Be Given $1500 A Fortnight To Keep Them Working Through The Coronavirus Crisis
“The payment will give working Australians their best chance of keeping their job and keeping them connected to their employers so they can bounce back in the recovery phase.”
Over the next six months, almost six million Australians are expected to need welfare support due to the coronavirus – the government has today announced a new payment to help support them.
An extra $130 billion will be spent on the new JobKeeper Payment, which will provide workers with $1500 a fortnight regardless of their normal income.
The payment will be made to businesses, so that employers who would have otherwise been forced to stand staff down can afford to keep them on during the downturn.
The payments can be accessed by full and part-time workers, sole traders and to casuals who have been with their employer for more than 12 months.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the payment is about 70% of the median wage.
“It represents 100% of the median wage of those sectors most heavily impacted by the coronavirus like retail, like hospitality and tourism,” he said.
“The payment will give working Australians their best chance of keeping their job and keeping them connected to their employers so they can bounce back in the recovery phase.”
PM Scott Morrison said they expect six million Australians will need this lifeline in the months ahead.
“Our scheme is designed to keep people not just in pay, but to keep people in work wherever possible,” he said.
“This is an incentive for businesses to adapt to these new circumstances, to keep people doing actual work. This is not money for people to go away and do nothing.”
To be eligible businesses will need to have lost 30% of their income (unless they have a normal turnover of more than $1 billion – then they will need to show they’ve lost 50%).
Payments will be available from the first week of May, backdated to today.
Many people who would normally access JobSeeker will now be eligible for the new Job Keeper payment.
For those who will still need JobSeeker, they’ve lifted the partner income test to more than $79,000 to make more people eligible.