FEDS’ $60 BILLION JOBKEEPER STUFF-UP

JobKeeper’s big bungle

AN embarrassing paperwork bungle — which has seen the costs of the JobKeeper scheme slashed by $60 billion — has prompted fresh calls for the $1500-a-fortnight payment to be extended.

Tasmania’s hospitality sector now says the wage subsidy should stay in place until at least Christmas.

In an extraordinary twist yesterday, federal Treasury revealed it had massively overestimated the six-month scheme’s cost due to a “reporting error”, and revised its forecast down from $130 billion to $70 billion.

It also revealed only 3.5 million Australians were expected to get the payment, not 6.5 million as initially forecast.

The error was blamed on about 1000 businesses who made “significant errors” on their paperwork when applying for the scheme.

“The most common error was that instead of reporting the number of employees they expected to be eligible, they reported the amount of assistance they expected to receive,” the statement said. “Over 500 businesses with one eligible employee reported a figure of ‘1500’, which is the amount of JobKeeper payment they would expect to receive each fortnight for that employee.”

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese described it as an “absolute shambles”.

About $8.7 billion has already been paid to more than 759,600 businesses, covering about 2.9 million employees.

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Michael Bailey welcomed the accounting error as “great news,” saying the Government should immediately extend the “safety net” for the hardest hit sectors beyond September.

“There’s no doubt that Tasmanian accommodation and some hospitality businesses are going to be struggling longterm,” he said.

Tasmanian Hospitality Association boss Steve Old said extending the payment until Christmas would give many pubs, hotels and cafes a fighting chance to survive.

“My worry is there are a lot of businesses that have gone to banks or other suppliers and have got payments deferred, and all they’re really doing is delaying the inevitable, which is they have got to pay it,” he said.

“They are going to reopen, not at full capacity, and they’re going to be faced with massive debts. We need to see it extended, and we need to see that announced soon for our industry,” he said.

Mr Frydenberg said the underspend was “not an invitation to go and spend more”.