More than 13,000 NZ businesses advised to repay Covid-19 wage subsidy

July 28, 2020
Hundreds of claims are now either being investigated or mediated.

Figures released by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) show more than 13,000 New Zealand businesses have been advised to repay money granted to them under the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme.

MSD's group general manager for client service support George van Ooyen said that, as of July 17, a total of 13,163 repayments had been requested from businesses, and that 10,114 of those had already been repaid.

A total of 781,994 applications had been received under the Wage Subsidy and Leave Payment Scheme.

Mr van Ooyen also said that a total of 3094 allegations had been received against employers, but that "our auditing to date has found that in the vast majority of cases, employers are doing the right thing".

"In many cases where entitlements have been wrongly claimed, it is due to uncertainty about eligibility criteria, rather than deliberate attempts at deception," Mr van Ooyen said.

Employers who applied for the subsidy but then found their revenue was not as low as expected had refunded a total of $316.8 million to July 17.

Of the businesses which have been audited or investigated following allegation, a total of 750 had been ordered to refund subsidies valued at $11.5 million - $6.8 million of that had already been repaid.

Mr van Ooyen said as of July 17, 586 cases had been referred for investigation, 272 investigations were underway, and 54 investigations had already been resolved.

"Any decisions on prosecutions will come after a thorough investigation and weighing of the evidentiary basis for a prosecution," he said.

To date, there have been no prosecutions.

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