New Zealand provides financial aid for companies with revenue shortfall

The government is granting financial support to help companies transition to the new traffic light system for managing COVID-19.
By: | December 1, 2021
Topics: Compensation and Benefits | Health and Wellness | New Zealand | News

This comes as the country phases out the support under the previous alert levels system.

The financial support will be in the form of a payment of up to NZ$24,000 (US$16,364) available to businesses as they move into the new traffic light system, finance minister Grant Robertson said.

The one-off payment would be activated through the resurgence support payment (RSP) system criteria and be available on December 10, he said.

“This payment is at a higher base rate than the current RSP and will be NZ$4000 (US$2,727) per business plus NZ$400 (US$273) per full-time employee (FTE) up to a cap of 50 FTEs – a maximum payment of NZ$24,000 (US$16,364). [The] Treasury has estimated the likely total cost of the payment to be between NZ$350 million (US$239 million) and NZ$490 million (US$334 million),” he added.

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To qualify for this payment, companies need to show a fall in revenue of 30% between October 3 and November 9 and must be compared to a typical week in the six weeks before August 17, Robertson said, in recognition of the period Auckland had spent in lockdown.

“At all levels of the new framework, most businesses will be able to operate at almost full capacity,” Robertson said, according to Stuff.