Eligibility for the COVID-19 Income Relief Payment

The COVID-19 Income Relief Payment announced recently has a criteria which needs to be met to be eligible for the scheme:

Who can apply:

You may be able to apply for the Income Relief Payment if you:

• lost your last job or self-employment from 1 March 2020 to 30 October 2020 (inclusive) because of the impacts of COVID-19, and

• normally worked 15 hours or more a week (for 12 weeks or more) before you lost your work because of COVID-19.

You must also be:

• a New Zealand citizen or a resident who normally works and lives in New Zealand, and

• 18 years old or over, or a financially independent 16 or 17 year old.

Who can not apply:

You will not qualify for the COVID-19 Income Relief Payment if you:

• get a redundancy payment of $30,000 or more, before tax

• get or used to get private income protection insurance payments for the job you lost

• are getting earnings-related ACC payments

• left your job for another reason – for example, you resigned, retired, wound up a viable business or were dismissed (eg. for misconduct)

• still have a job.

For more details on Criteria Click Here.

More updates will be available closer to the date of application