Lockdown payment to businesses to be extended

The one-off payment to help businesses cover rent and other fixed costs will be extended to new businesses.

The Resurgence Support Payment was originally for businesses at least six months old, but that will be reduced to one.

Finance minister Grant Robertson says he's "acknowledged concerns that particularly during an extended period at higher alert levels this rule is overly restrictive".

Businesses can apply under the new criteria from next Thursday 9 September, and Inland Revenue will contact businesses that had previously been declined under that particular requirement.

Other criteria like a 30 percent drop in revenue will still apply.

The payment's available when there's an alert level 2 or higher in place.

"We know that many businesses are doing it tough during these heightened alert levels," says Robertson, and encourages them to apply for the support that's available.

The government would also "continue to assess the support schemes we have in place" to ensure adequate levels of support are available.

But he says a rent support package, as proposed by National, is not on the table at present.

Under that proposal, small businesses with a 40 percent loss of revenue under either alert level 4 or 3 could have half of their rent and other "associated building costs" covered by the government, as long as the landlord also chipped in 25 percent.

There would also be an emergency arbitration service when requested by either the tenant or landlord, so any disputes could be quickly resolved.

National's Shadow Treasurer Andrew Bayly says while the wage subsidy and Resurgence Support Payment have clearly helped small business, "rent is the most significant cost and while some commercial landlords are cutting their tenants slack, others are not".

"I am hearing from small business owners and representative organisations everyday about the sky-high levels of anxiety and stress Kiwi business owners are experiencing, particularly those in Auckland who face at least another two weeks at level 4," he says.

"This outbreak is likely to continue for a number of weeks and many businesses will have to wait until level 2 to be even partially operational. Not to mention the uncertainty of whether we will face more lockdowns in the future."

As in so many other ways, Delta is a game-changer, he says, and he's worried "it's here to stay".

Allowing businesses to fail, says Bayly, not only risks the livelihoods of business owners, but also puts tens of thousands of jobs in peril.

"We need to plan for much more economic disruption as much as the health and social disruption" with the possibility of ongoing lockdowns.

"If that occurs, businesses simply burn cash and run out of cash, and will not necessarily rely on a bank continuing to top up the overdraft.

"And this is a way of trying to support businesses to keep them alive, and also more importantly, to enable them to continue to employ people."

Robertson says the Resurgence Support Payment was brought in specifically to help with fixed costs, but options would be considered over the coming days - "obviously we accept that the longer an outbreak goes on, the more pressure that it puts on businesses and so we will continue to look at our options".

The scheme:

• The Resurgence Support Payment includes a core per business rate of $1,500, plus $400 per employee, up to a total of 50 full-time equivalents (FTEs) which is a maximum payment of $21,500.
• Businesses with more than 50 FTEs can still apply but cannot get more than the maximum payment. The scheme will remain open for applications until all of New Zealand returns to Alert Level 1 for one month.
• Businesses can apply for the payment by logging into their MyIR account. They can also apply for the Wage Subsidy Scheme, Leave Support Scheme and Short-Term Absence Payment as appropriate, through the Ministry of Social Development website.