Example Comms: Applying for Recovery Assistance BUSINESS RECOVERY PACKAGES:
WAGE SUBSIDY AND LEAVE PAYMENT
APPLYING FOR BUSINESS RECOVERY ASSISTANCE If you are facing difficulties in paying your staff, we recommend that your practice seriously considers applying for a Business Recovery Package through Work and Income at https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/ess/employer_applications/new
The most applicable is applying for the 30% decline in actual income. When completing this please note you can only make one application per business. Please consider carefully all your employees, both casual and permanent, as well as non-clinical staff.
Overall Criteria: • • •
The business must experience at least a 30% decline in actual or predicted revenue over the period of a month when compared with the same month last year, and that decline is related to COVID-19 Employers must make their best efforts to pay 80% of the normal wages for whom the subsidy has been claimed. Once your application is approved, you will receive the full 12 weeks payment for each worker as a lump sum. This money must be applied to pay the worker, not for other business purposes.
These packages are turned around in a short timeframe which can ease paying staff.
The national remuneration package for General Practice is still being worked on. We now expect that details will be released by next week. We are continuing to strongly advocate for a funding package that adequately compensates General Practice for the extra COVID-19
workload. Because this funding may not flow to you in a timely manner, we do recommend looking into the Business Recovery Package to pay staff. HR – EMPLOYER OBLIGATIONS AND GUIDANCE AROUND STAFF LEAVE Medical Assurance Society (MAS) have provided some guidance around staff leave related to COVID-19. This guidance is updated on a regular basis. The MAS business advisory team can be contacted at business@mas.co.nz or on 0800 800 627. https://www.healthypractice.co.nz/news/covid-19-corona-virus-employer-obligations/ https://www.mas.co.nz/about-mas/news/coronavirus-does-it-affect-my-insurance-cover-or-myinvestments/