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NSW 2022 Small Business Support Program

   

On 30 January 2022, in a joint media release, the Premier of NSW, The Hon Dominic Perrottet MP, the NSW Treasurer and Minister for Energy, the Hon Matt Kean MP, the Deputy Premier of NSW and Minister for Regional NSW and Police, the Hon Paul Toole MP, and the Minister for Small Business and Fair Trading, the Hon Eleni Petinos MP, announced the 2022 Small Business Support Program (SBSP) to support businesses most impacted by the Omicron wave in NSW.

The JobSaver payment program ended on 30 November 2021 and was co-funded by the Commonwealth and the NSW Government until NSW reached the 80% double COVID-19 vaccination target. From that point, the NSW Government continued to fund its 50% contribution to JobSaver payments, and the amount of the payments tapered from the original rate of 40% of NSW Weekly Payroll to 30% then to 15%. By contrast, the SBSP will be funded solely by the NSW Government and cover 20% of an eligible business’ NSW payroll for February 2022.

Daily case numbers in the tens of thousands have affected consumer confidence, presenting ongoing challenges in the form of hesitant customers not wanting to venture out. Further, significant staffing shortages have resulted from the higher case numbers as those infected, and those (re)defined as ‘close contacts’, are required to isolate leading to furloughs. Many businesses have experienced further disruption to their operations and cash flow, inhibiting them from returning to ‘normal’ trading conditions. However, unlike 2020 and 2021, extensive government financial assistance is no longer available to businesses.

The NSW Government has introduced the SBSP to provide targeted assistance to those businesses requiring financial support to continue operating in 2022 and beyond. This measure is supplemented by an expansion of the support provided under the Small Business Fees, Charges and RAT Rebate. The SBSP will be delivered jointly by Service NSW and Revenue NSW.

There will be a tendency to describe this payment as ‘JobSaver Mark 2’ or ‘JobSaver 2022’, but this should be avoided. While some features of the new payment are the same or similar to the former program, there are important distinctions; the most significant being that the SBSP payment is not a recurring fortnightly payment.

The Guidelines for the SBSP were released on 8 February 2022. A reference to 'businesses’ below should be interpreted as including businesses, registered charities and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations.

Published: 10 February 2022

Tagged
  • COVID-19
  • Stimulus measures
  • NSW