PM announces new job keeper payments
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s latest round of economic stimulus involves fortnightly payments of $1500 for Australian workers in danger of being stood down or losing their job altogether.
The Federal Government’s new ‘Job Keeper’ payments will see employers paid up to $1,500 a fortnight for each employee to subsidise their pay packets and incentive employers to hang on to their workers through the coronavirus economic downturn.
The $130 billion package is expected to cover the next six months and affect as many as six million Australians.
Workers who have already been stood down will be eligible for the allowance as long as they were employed by their business on March 1.
The payment will apply to part-time and well as full-time workers, sole traders and casual workers, if they have been with their employer for 12 months or more.
Eligible employers are businesses including companies, partnerships, trusts and sole traders, not-for-profits and charities that have lost 30 per cent or more of their revenue compared to a comparable period a year ago (if they have a turnover of less than $1 billion) or have recorded at least a 50 per cent reduction in revenue compared to a comparable period a year ago (if they have a turnover of $1 billion or more).
Businesses can register their interest in participating in the payment on the ATO website. The payments will be rolled out in the first week of May and backdated to March 30.
“Now is the time to dig deep,” Morrison said.
“We are living in unprecedented times. With the twin battles that we face and that we fight against - a virus and against the economic ruin that it can threaten.
“This calls for unprecedented action.”
Sheridan Randall, 31st March 2020
