Covid-19 Job Keeper wage subsidy extended till March 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the details of revised Job Keeper and Job Seeker program this morning, ahead of the ‘mini-budget’ economic update on Thursday.

The JobKeeper wage subsidy will continue until March next year, but payments will fall from $1,500 to $1,200 a fortnight after September 2020. People working fewer than 20 hours a week will receive lower amount of $750.

However, businesses must pass a new eligibility test in October 2020, which will involve testing their actual turnover to determine whether the business recovered in the last six months. Businesses will have to prove they're still in financial distress each quarter, down at least 30 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, to remain eligible for the program after September.

The payments will fall again to $1,000 a fortnight, and $650 a fortnight for people working fewer than 20 hours, between January 4^th and 28^th March 2021.

Since the Government established JobKeeper at the height of the coronavirus crisis, businesses have been paid a flat rate of $1,500 each fortnight for every staff member they kept on their books.

About a quarter of recipients of the flat-rate payment earned more money under JobKeeper than they did pre-pandemic, prompting criticism from within the Coalition about the generosity of the program.

The Australian sharemarket has rallied on news that the government will extend its JobKeeper and JobSeeker payments until at least March 28, 2021.

As soon as the Prime Minister began speaking shortly after 11am the ASX 200 rose 1.23 per cent to 6,075.5 points.

Following is the fact sheet of the “Extension of the JobKeeper Payment” published by the Treasury