Wage Subsidy – Round 2 and Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) – August 2021

Round 2 of the wage subsidy and updated Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) for August 2021 level 4 have been announced and started.

From 9 September 2021, if you’ve been in business for at least 1 month before the alert level increase on 17 August 2021, you can apply for the payment. The original criteria was 6 months.

A business or organisation must have been in business for at least 1 month and experienced at least a 30% drop in revenue over a 7-day period, due to the increased COVID-19 alert level (subject to all other criteria being met). This decrease in revenue is compared with a typical 7-day revenue period in the 6 weeks prior to the increase from alert level 1.

For more details, please go to this link HERE.

There are two COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021 payments. The previous two-week COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021, which opened on 20 August 2021, has closed.

Applications for the second COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021, known as Wage Subsidy August 2021 #2, are open for two weeks between 9am 3 September 2021 and 11.59pm Thursday 16 September 2021.

Your business needs to meet the eligibility criteria and agree to meet the obligations in the declaration to be able to get a COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021 payment. It’s available to all New Zealand businesses and self-employed people that meet eligibility criteria.

The full eligibility details and obligations are set-out in the declaration, which you must read and agree to when you apply for a COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021 payment. (Declaration)

If you applied between 20 August and 7am on 3 September 2021, you will have agreed to a different declaration when you applied. (Previous Declaration)

If you’ve already applied for the previous COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021, you need to wait until two weeks after you applied before you can apply for the new Wage Subsidy #2, even if you haven’t received payment yet.

If you apply earlier than this, your application for the new subsidy will be declined.

If you applied and were eligible for the initial Wage Subsidy, we’ll email you to tell you when you can apply for the new Wage Subsidy #2.

The Wage Subsidy August 2021 will cover a two week period at the rate of:

• $600 a week for each full-time employee retained (20 hours a week or more)
• $359 a week for each part-time employee retained (less than 20 hours a week)

For more information, please go to this link HERE.