COVID-19 Essential Workers Leave Support Scheme

The information on this page is a summary of the key details about this payment. Detailed information can be found in the declarations at the bottom of this page.

These payments helped essential businesses pay employees and protect jobs during the alert level changes and lockdowns. This included self-employed people running an essential business. Employers and self-employed people could apply on behalf of their employees.

Essential businesses provide services that are necessary for people to live. These include things like food, health care, and power. These businesses continued to operate during COVID-19 alert levels 4 and 3, and during lockdowns.

Who could get it

This payment was available to businesses to keep paying staff who were self-isolating and unable to work. The staff must have been self-isolating (either in line with public health guidance or because they were advised to) because they either:

• had COVID-19
• were the parent or caregiver of a dependant who had COVID-19
• were in the category of people most at risk of severe illness from COVID-19, or had a household member who was, and were advised by a medical practitioner (eg. a GP) to self-isolate.

The business had to be an essential business.

The business must have had either:

• at least 30% decline in revenue over 1 month due to the COVID-19 outbreak, compared to the same month in 2019 (or an equivalent month if the business had been operating for less than a year)
• a negative impact on it’s ability to support and pay employees.

The full eligibility criteria are listed in the declaration.

Payment amount

The payment was paid as a lump-sum of:

• $585.80 for each full-time employee (20 hours a week or more)
• $350 for each part-time employee (less than 20 hours a week).

Declaration

The declaration contains the full eligibility criteria, obligations and repayment responsibilities for the COVID-19 Essential Workers Leave Support Scheme.