The Government is continuing to provide financial support to businesses and have made some useful flowcharts available. The current schemes are:
- Short-term absence payment – this is a one off payment to help pay wages of staff members who are having to self-isolate because they are awaiting a Covid-19 test result.
- Leave Support Payment – this is a weekly payment to help pay wages of staff members who are having to self-isolate because they have tested positive for Covid-19 or have been identified as a close contact. It can also be accessed for people who are caring for depedents who are having to isolate for these reasons. It is not available for other reasons such as day cares not being able to open.
- Small Business Loan Scheme - administered by Inland Revenue this is a loan scheme to support cashflow needs
- Events Transition Support Payment Scheme - this is a scheme to help organisers continue organising events
Each support scheme has its own rules and obligations and it is important these are read and understood. The obligations are being regularly updated so need to be re-read with every application made. A recent example is changes to the Leave Support Scheme to include requirements that the Employer makes their best efforts to pay ordinary pay or at least 80% of ordinary pay and not compel their employee to use leave entitlements.
The payment schemes are to help the employer to pay wages with the expectation that what is paid as earnings is at least the payment amount unless that amount was higher than ordinary earnings. The employer remains responsible for the on-costs such as holiday pay, KiwiSaver and ACC. The payments are also included for company income tax calculations.
To apply for payments to help pay wages like the Leave Support Payment permission must have been expressly sought from the named employees to share their details with MSD.
At a practical level our advice would be to communicate with staff about what would be considered if they could not work due to Covid-19 in terms of using any entitlements and what other support you could consider. If this includes that you are open to considering support from Government you could use this time to get their permission to share their details with MSD so that is already on file.
For further information about the support schemes or preparing communications for your staff get in touch with the Grow HR team.