COVID-19 Wage Subsidy August 2021

The COVID-19 Wage Subsidies August 2021 were support for businesses to pay 2 weeks of wages (per application) for their employees. It was to continue support for businesses affected by changes to COVID-19 alert levels and lockdowns.

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

Who could get it

These payments were available to employers, including self-employed people, whose employees could not work during the COVID-19 alert level changes. The alert level changes lasted from 17 August 2021 until 2 December 2021, when New Zealand moved to the COVID-19 Protection Framework. Employers and self-employed people could apply on behalf of their employees.

To get a payment, a business must have:

• had at least a 40% decline in revenue over a certain timeframe (this timeframe depended on the time of application, there’s more detail about this in the declarations below)
• been registered with the New Zealand Companies Office (except for self-employed people) and operating in New Zealand
• physically located and legally working in New Zealand (for self-employed people).

State Sector organisations were generally not eligible for COVID-19 payments, however some may have been granted an exception. This could be because they had an exception for a previous COVID-19 payment, or the organisation was a State-Owned Enterprise or Mixed Ownership Model company.

The full eligibility criteria is listed in the declarations.

Payment amount

These payments were paid as a 2-week lump sum of:

• $600 a week for each full-time employee (20 hours a week or more)
• $359 a week for each part-time employee (less than 20 hours a week).

Declarations

The declarations contain the full eligibility criteria, obligations and repayment responsibilities for each of the Wage Subsidy August 2021 payments. Each Wage Subsidy had its own declaration.

Wage Subsidy 1 declaration: from 9am 20 Aug 2021 to 7am 3 Sep 2021
Wage Subsidy 2 declaration: from 9am 3 Sep 2021 to 11:59pm 16 Sep 2021
Wage Subsidy 3 declaration: from 9am 17 Sep 2021 to 11:59pm 30 Sep 2021
Wage Subsidy 4 declaration: from 9am 1 Oct 2021 to 11:59pm 14 Oct 2021
Wage Subsidy 5 declaration: from 9am 15 Oct 2021 to 11:59pm 28 Oct 2021
Wage Subsidy 6 declaration: from 9am 29 Oct 2021 to 11:59pm 11 Nov 2021
Wage Subsidy 7 declaration: from 9am 12 Nov 2021 to 11:59pm 25 Nov 2021
Wage Subsidy 8 declaration; from 9am 26 Nov 2021 to 11:59pm 9 Dec 2021