Businesses queue up for new support measures

WELLINGTON: Thousands of businesses have asked for the Government’s latest support package since applications opened yesterday.

So far, 3434 have applied for a combined $10.34 million dollars.

The Resurgence Support Payment is eligible to those that have suffered a 30% drop in revenue over seven days and was introduced to boost businesses when there was an increase in alert levels.

Under the scheme, each eligible business will receive $1500 plus $400 per employee up to a total of 50 fulltime employees, and totalling a maximum of $21,500 per business.

Inland Revenue is administering the scheme and said the applications would be considered overnight.

Businesses across New Zealand can apply for the support payment for another month.

The legislation came into effect yesterday.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson was confident the scheme would be helpful.

‘‘When we go up alert levels there are fixed costs that businesses incur.

‘‘It might be a hospitality business that has to reorganise itself to be able to serve people at their tables and separate people out.

‘‘Or it might be a business that’s had to bring on extra staff to manage safety situations, or they may have lost revenue.

‘‘We wanted to recognise that,’’ he said.

Not all business owners are thrilled by the scheme.

Restaurant Association of New Zealand chief executive Marisa Bidois said while it was positive that businesses would receive extra support, it was not enough.

‘‘The effects of coming in and out of lockdown, it does have a significant impact on business for several weeks,’’ she said.

Ms Bidois expected large numbers of businesses to take up the Government’s offer as alert level changes had hit the industry hard.

‘‘Wherever you are, the level changes affect your business, and it also affects the consumer confidence as well,’’ she said.

Mr Robertson said it was important for business owners to look at all the support the Government had given over the past year.

‘‘A significant amount of financial resource has been given to businesses.

‘‘This is a contribution. ‘‘We’re not claiming at any point that it’s going to cover all the costs of a particular business, but we want to share the burden with businesses.

‘‘This is a recognition that when we do change alert levels, even to Level 2, that it can have an impact,’’ he said.

The Government has set aside $300 million for the scheme.

‘‘We don’t believe we will need all of that, but if more people applied . . . we would find more money . . . because it is based on meeting the criteria and being paid out,’’ he said.