Employment wage scheme will support 350,000 jobs
The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme is also being extended, though its name will be changed.
It will now be known as the Employment Wage Support Scheme, and it’s set to terminate on April 1, 2021.
Its predecessor, which saw the government paying the majority of roughly 400,000 workers’ salaries in order to ease the pressure on their beleaguered employers, currently refunds employers up to €410 per week for eligible employees, and has cost the State about €2.165 billion since it was first launched on the eve of lockdown on March 27.
The old scheme was recently expanded to allow for the inclusion of seasonal workers in order to allow struggling businesses to hire new temporary staff.
2 Helping People Especially young people, get back to work
— MerrionStreet.ie (@merrionstreet) July 23, 2020
- Extension of Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) to 1st April 2021
- €200m investment in training, skills development, work placement schemes, recruitment subsidies, and job search and assistance#JobsStimulus pic.twitter.com/ho9pvxQbJA
Its successor will see employers whose turnover has fallen by 30% or more receive a flat-rate subsidy of up to €203 per week per employee, including for seasonal staff and other new employees, with newer firms also eligible.
The new scheme is expected to support in or around 350,000 jobs into the new year, with an assistance pot available of €1.9 billion, and will “provide much-needed certainty to businesses and individuals in the coming months”.
It is unclear when the new scheme will officially begin.