Lockdown has been extended and affects more people than ever. This means that we want our customers to make sure they are taking care of themselves financially. Here is a quick refresher on the grants available to help you ensure that you and your family are as financially secure as possible during these tough times.

To begin, workers will receive an increase in their income support from $500 to $600 per week for people who were working more than 20 hours a week before lockdown. For those who worked less than 20 hours a week before lockdown their income support is increasing from $325 to $375 per week. This will take effect from July 18.

Business owners will still receive a minimum of $1,500 per week and up to a maximum of $10,000 a week but a few changes to the criteria have been highlighted.

Part of the new Job-Saving Program means that companies with an annual turnover between $75,000 and $50 million can receive a cash flow boost if they can show a 30% fall in turnover during the same period in 2019. They must also show that they are not laying off any staff in the process. As of July 13, companies must retain their current full-time, part-time, and long-term casual employees.

Sole traders and anyone without employees will receive a set of $1,000 per week.

Micro-businesses earning more than $30,000 but less than $75,000 will receive a backdated $1,500 fortnightly payment from week one of the lockdown if they have seen a 30% reduction in turnover.

Payroll tax liabilities will also be deferred for two months and there are interest-free repayments plans for up to 12 months.

There are payroll tax concessions available as well. Businesses with yearly payrolls between $1.2 million and $10 million can see a 25% reduction in the payroll tax. This is only for businesses receiving either a business support grant or the job saver program to be eligible.

There is also support for landlords. For commercial leases, landlords can receive up to 100% land tax concessions if they provide rental relief for tenants. They also cannot lockout or evict impacted tenants before mediation.

For residential leases, landlords and tenants who have lost 25% of their income can also receive a 100% land tax concession if they provide rental relief. There is a $1,500 grant to residential landlords who don’t pay land tax to reduce their tenants rent by an equivalent amount. Finally, there is a moratorium on tenant evictions for the next 60 days.

For more information about these grants head to service.nsw.gov.au.

In addition to these grants, It’s Simple Finance has provided some useful tips for business owners to pay their insurance and worker’s compensation premiums at this time. We take a look at Insurance Premium Funding and the Worker’s Compensation Early Bird Discount. Find out the details in our article on the subject.

There wasn’t much property news but something that has been making headlines despite all the lockdown news are the new findings regarding COVID and property prices. It seems that COVID is actually driving the price of property prices rather than property prices rising in spite of the pandemic.

KPMG, a top-four accounting firm, found prices increased as much as 150% more than they would have without a pandemic. For example, Sydney prices were estimated to grow by 13% without the pandemic, but the pandemic caused an incredible 25% price growth instead.
For the details check out news.com.au’s coverage.

CoreLogic has also recently discovered that more than one-third of Australian properties are cheaper to buy than rent. These properties are typically found in regional areas of all states and territories. This is due to loan repayments being lower than paying rent in regional areas. The ABC go into the details for each state with their coverage.

Now that people are stuck home, many may be looking to improve their gardens but a recent study based on Macquarie University’s VegeSafe program has found that over 35% of yards are contaminated with concerning levels of lead. For tips to improve this check out It’s Simple Finance’s article on the subject.