JobKeeper Update

On Tuesday 21 July Scott Morrison announced that the JobKeeper fortnightly payments of $1500 (gross) to eligible employees will remain unchanged until 27 September 2020.

After this date, the JobKeeper subsidy will also vary per employee depending on whether they fall under the scheme’s new full-time (working over 20 hours per week) or part-time (working under 20 hours per week) categories. Determining whether an employee is full-time or part-time will be based on the average hours worked in the four weeks leading up to 1 March 2020.

The Government also plans to reduce the amount it pays, as shown in the following table:

Employers should note:

• Current participants do not automatically qualify for the scheme post-September 2020. It will be necessary for employers to requalify by demonstrating an actual (rather than projected) GST turnover decline.
• This must be established each quarter to remain eligible.
• The relevant GST turnover decline thresholds are the same.
• The scheme is not available for new employees, eligible workers must have been employed on or before 1 March 2020.

What this means for employers

Employers currently participating in the JobKeeper scheme should start assessing their eligibility beyond September 2020 given the new qualifying measures and requirements. It would also be helpful to begin determining which employees fall under the scheme’s definition of part-time and full-time employees.

If you have any queries or require any guidance in managing the impact of changes to JobKeeper in relation to leave, standing down employees or redundancies, please do not hesitate to contact Nick Stevens, Jane Murray or Bernard Cheng.