The Future of JobKeeper – What you need to know

Between April to May 2020, JobKeeper was taken up by 920,000 organisations and around 3.5 million individuals – 30% of pre-Coronavirus private sector employment.

There have been a number of Government announcements on JobKeeper that impact on business and employee eligibility.

Employees that previously failed the JobKeeper eligibility test as they were not employed on 1 March 2020, may now be eligible for payments from 3 August 2020 if they were employed on 1 July 2020.

From 28 September 2020, employers seeking to claim JobKeeper payments will need to reassess their eligibility and prove an actual decline in turnover. From this date, the JobKeeper payment rate will reduce and split into a higher and lower rate based on the number of hours the employee worked in the 4 weeks prior to 1 March 2020 or 1 July 2020.

To access JobKeeper payments from 28 September 2020, there are two questions that need to be assessed:

• Is my business eligible? And
• What JobKeeper rate applies to my eligible employees?

We’ve summarised the key details for employers on JobKeeper 2.0 in this update, but just remember that the proposed changes are not yet law and the details could still change.