Enrolments for the country’s historic $130 billion Jobkeeper payment opened at the start of last week and so far, more than 400,000 business have enrolled.

To ensure the integrity and the efficient operation of the Jobkeeper payment, the following updates and changes have been introduced by the government.

EXTENSION OF ENROLMENT TIME

The time to enrol for the initial Jobkeeper period has been extended from 30 April 2020 until 31 May 2020. If you enrol by 31 May you will still be able to claim for the fortnights in April and May provided that you meet all the eligibility requirements for each of those fortnights. This includes having paid your employees by the appropriate date each fortnight.

‘ONE IN, ALL IN’ PRINCIPLE

Once an employer has registered for the Jobkeeper payment and their eligible employees have agreed to be nominated by the employer, the employer must ensure that all of these eligible employees are covered by their participation in the scheme. This includes employees who are either undertaking work for the employer or have been stood down. The employer cannot select which eligible employees will participate in the scheme.

FULL TIME STUDENTS

The benefit of the Jobkeeper payment to workers over the age of 16 is justified for those who are financially independent and who require the security provided by the participation in the Jobkeeper scheme. The rules will provide that a full time student who is 17 years or younger, and who are not financially independent, are not eligible for the Jobkeeper payment. This means an eligible employer that has already met the wage condition of paying such an employee $1,500 for a fortnight could be entitled to a Jobkeeper payment in arrears for that fortnight.

EMPLOYEES EMPLOYED THROUGH A SPECIAL PURPOSE ENTITY

Changes will address the circumstance where business structures use a special purpose entity to employ staff rather than staff being directly employed by an operating entity. An alternate decline in turnover test for the eligibility of special purpose service entities will provide employee labour to group members and that have not met the basic test for decline in turnover. This alternate test will apply where an entity provides the services of its employees to one or more related entities, where those related entities carry on a business deriving revenue from unrelated third parties. The alternate test will be by reference to the combined GST turnovers of the related entities using the services of the employer entity.