On 7th August, further changes to JobKeeper were announced. The key changes in the latest announcement are:
New Employee Eligibility Date – 1st July
Beginning from the JobKeeper fortnight commencing 3rd August, eligible employees will now include those that were employed by a business on 1st July (previous date was 1st March).
There may now be a number of employees that previously did not qualify, but are now eligible. Some examples where this may be the case include:
- Employees who were employed on a permanent basis after 1st March, but on or before 1st July;
- Casual employees who had not been employed for 12 months by 1st March who will have met this requirement by 1st July;
- Employees who were not eligible because they were 16 or 17, who turned 18 on or before 1st July.
Importantly employees who have already nominated do not need to do so again.
Business receiving JobKeeper should review their situation to make sure any new eligible employees are offered the chance to nominate. Under the one-in, all-in principle to remain compliant any new eligible employees will need to be included.
If there are any new employees eligible they need to provide their employee with a nomination notice by MONDAY 22ND AUGUST.
Thankfully the ATO have stated that for any new eligible employees, the business will have until 31st August to meet the wage condition.
Doing nothing could expose businesses to issues from employees who were not offered JobKeeper where they should have been, including penalties under the Fair Work Act.
New Eligibility Rules
A business that has already satisfied the eligibility requirements will continue to remain eligible for JobKeeper fortnights up to 27th September. To continue to receive payments after this date there were additional eligibility requirements that were announced in July. The latest announcement changes these additional eligibility requirements.
To remain eligible for payments from October to December, a business must show their required decline in turnover for the September quarter only. Then for payments from January to March the business must satisfy the decline in turnover for the December quarter only.
If you have questions about these latest announcements please get in touch.
