Unemployed Australians and workers on the Federal Government’s coronavirus wage subsidy program will continue to receive support beyond the planned JobSeeker and JobKeeper end date.
Key points:
- JobKeeper will fall from $1,500 a fortnight to $1,200 a fortnight in September and fall again in 2021
- People working fewer than 20 hours a week will receive $750 in September and $650 in 2021
- The JobSeeker payment will fall from $1,100 to $800 a fortnight in September
More than 5 million Australians receive payments from the JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs. The JobKeeper wage subsidy is paid to 960,000 employers, who then pass the full payment onto 3.5 million workers.
Businesses will have to prove they’re still in financial distress each quarter, down at least 30 per cent on pre-pandemic levels, to remain eligible for the program after September. The Government expects the expanded JobKeeper program will take the cost of the program to about $86 billion.”JobSeeker and JobKeeper are payments that support people’s incomes but are not designed to prevent them from going out and seeking work.”
The official unemployment rate is 7.4 per cent but the effective rate, excluding government support like JobKeeper, is more than 11 per cent. It had been above 13 per cent in recent weeks.