Published 21st July 2021
21 July 2021 COVID Update -
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Financial assistance for South Australian businesses & individuals affected by lockdown!
In welcome news today, South Australian businesses can now access financial assistance through the State Government.
A $100 million Business Support Package will provide $3,000 emergency cash grants to South Australian small and medium-sized businesses that suffer a significant loss of income or have been forced to close as a result of the state’s 7-day lockdown.
Premier Steven Marshall also announced today that the income relief offered to individuals by the Federal Government to nationally-declared ‘hot spot’ zones – the council areas of Adelaide, Adelaide Hills and Gawler – will be extended state-wide.
Business Support Package
The new Business Support Package will assist an estimated 50,000 eligible* SMEs across the state, affected by the new restrictions to help stop the spread of the highly-contagious COVID-19 Delta variant.
Grants will help businesses cover ongoing operating costs such as rent, power bills, supplier costs and other fees, and help them to re-open when restrictions ease.
The major support package also includes a new $1,000 cash grant for eligible** small businesses who don’t employ staff (e.g. non-employing sole traders).
How to access business support:
* To register interest in Business Support Package cash grants, complete the form at treasury.sa.gov.au/sbg or email smallbusinessgrant@sa.gov.au. Applications are expected to open within the next two weeks via treasury.sa.gov.au and grants will be processed as quickly as possible.
*To be eligible for the one-off $3,000 emergency cash grant, a business must, as at 12:01am Tuesday 20 July 2021:
* 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
**To be eligible for the one-off $1,000 emergency cash grant, a non-employing business must meet the criteria listed above excluding the requirement to employ people.
Income relief for individuals
The Commonwealth assistance – now matched by the State Government to extend state-wide – includes weekly lump sum payments of $375 for workers who lose between 8 and 19 hours of work a week, and $600 for those who lose 20 or more hours. The payments are made in arrears on an ongoing weekly basis so long as the hotspot definition and the lockdown requirements remain in place.
Today’s State Government announcement means these payments will be matched and made available to South Australians state-wide. These payments will be paid in arrears for the lockdown and anyone affected can apply through myGOV from Wednesday, 28 July.
How to access individual income relief:
* Details about how to claim the Commonwealth COVID-19 Disaster Payment (including the matching income support payment for eligible SA individuals outside the Commonwealth declared hotspots) will soon be available on the Services Australia website.