Welcome to the Rotorua Business Chamber

HAS YOUR BUSINESS BEEN AFFECTED BY COVID-19?

Because of COVID-19, financial pressure will be a reality for many businesses. Help is available if you are experiencing financial distress.

Find out what financial support you could access.

There are different support options if you are an employer, are self-employed or a sole trader, if you are an employee or if you are in New Zealand on a temporary visa.

COVID SUPPORT CALCULATOR TOOL

1. The Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) is available nationally when there is a regional or national move to Alert Levels 3 and 4 for a period of seven days and helps eligible businesses keep paying staff and protect jobs.

Businesses will be eligible for $600 per week per full-time equivalent employee, and $359 per week per part-time employee. 

Who can get the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy 2021? 

Self employed ? Check list criteria here

Apply for the wage subsidy here

2. The Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) is a payment to help support businesses or organisations with one-off costs due to a COVID-19 alert level increase to level 2 or higher. This is available to eligible firms at the same time as the WSS. 

When the RSP is activated, eligible businesses and organisations can apply to receive the lesser of:

• $1,500 plus $400 per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee, up to a maximum of 50 FTEs
• four times (4x) the actual revenue decline experienced by the applicant.

Access the RSP here.

3. The COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment (STAP) is available for businesses, including self-employed people, to help pay their workers who cannot work from home while they wait for a COVID-19 test result.

It’s to help businesses keep paying eligible workers who:

• cannot work from home, and
• need to miss work to stay home while waiting for a COVID-19 test result (in line with public health guidance).

Access the STAP here.

4. The COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme (LSS) is available for employers, including self-employed people, to help pay their employees who need to self-isolate and can’t work from home.

This means your workers:

• can’t come into work because they are in one of the affected groups and have been told to self-isolate, and
• can’t work from home.

Access the LSS here.

5. If you employ 50 or fewer staff, you may be able to apply for the Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme. This is a one-off 5 year loan.

You can borrow a maximum of $10,000 plus $1,800 per full-time-equivalent employee within your business.

• When applying for the loan, you need to be able to declare that your business is viable.
• Your business must have experienced a minimum 30% decline in actual or predicted revenue over the period of a month, compared with the same month last year. You can use the Revenue Estimator Toolto better understand your revenue.
• Applications are open until December 31, 2023 through myIR. If your business does not have a myIR account, you will need to create one to apply.

Loans will be interest-free if they are paid back within two years. The interest rate is 3% for a maximum term of five years. 

Access the SBCL Scheme here.