Covid 19 coronavirus: Resurgence Wage Subsidy scheme pays out $33 million in first week

Currently, 241,000 jobs are being supported by the original wage subsidy scheme, the extension to it and the resurgence scheme. Photo / 123RF

By Sarah Robson, of RNZ

More than 30,000 jobs are being supported by the Government's new wage subsidy scheme.

The Resurgence Wage Subsidy was announced after Auckland went back into level 3 lockdown and is available to businesses across the country.

To be eligible, businesses must have experienced a 40 per cent drop in revenue over a two-week period between 12 August and 10 September, compared to last year.

Figures from the Ministry of Social Development show almost $33 million was paid out to businesses in its first week, supporting 30,458 jobs.

At the moment, 241,000 jobs are being supported by the original wage subsidy scheme, the extension to it and the resurgence scheme.

More than 46,000 wage subsidy applications were received last week and almost 29,000 were approved.

Some of those applications are likely to be for the wage subsidy extension, which is open until September 1, as well as the resurgence scheme.

The Government expects the wage subsidy extension and the new wage subsidy to support 930,000 jobs.

The new scheme is being paid for by an underspend on the extension, which means the Government does not have to dip into the $14 billion it set aside in case of a second wave of Covid-19 cases.

All up, the various wage subsidy schemes have supported more than 1.7 million jobs and more than $13.4 billion has been paid out to businesses.