The 7-day statewide snap lockdown, which started at 6pm on Tuesday, has many businesses and employees wondering what support might be available to them to compensate for lost income. Thankfully there are some income supports available for individuals and businesses.

Support for individuals

Firstly, Metropolitan Adelaide, Gawler and Adelaide Hills were declared a “COVID-19 Hotspot” by the Federal Government on Tuesday 20 July. This opens up availability to the Commonwealth COVID-19 support payments. The SA Government then announced on Wednesday that they would be proving the same support to all eligible workers in SA who are outside of the Commonwealth declared Hotspot.

These payments will provide a weekly lump sum payment of $375 for workers who lose between eight and 19 hours of work and $600 for those who lose 20 hours or more for those in the federally declared hotspots while the South Australian Government will provide the same compensation for those in other areas of South Australia (regional SA). This means all South Australians will have support available to them.

Applications for the payment cannot be made until next Tuesday, 27 July and where the eligibility criteria are met, the payments will be made weekly in arrears. You can follow the link here for further information around eligibility and timing.

Support for businesses

The Treasurer, Rob Lucas, announced a $3,000 emergency cash grant for small and medium South Australian businesses that suffer a significant loss of income or have been forced to close as a result of the lockdown. There will also be a $1,000 emergency cash grant for non-employing businesses (essentially sole traders).

To be eligible to meet the criteria for the one-off payment, the business must:
• Be located within South Australia
• Have an annual turnover of $75,000 or more in 2020-21 or 2019-20, and be registered for GST
• Employ people in South Australia
• Have an Australia-wide payroll of less than $10 million in 2019-20
• Have a valid Australian Business Number (ABN)
• Experienced at least a 30 per cent reduction (compared to the week prior) in turnover due to the restricted trading conditions

You can register your interest in the grant here however, applications will not be open until next week. Will we provide further details as they become available.

If you have any questions in relation to the above, please contact your Holman Hodge Adviser.