Due to the covid 19 there has been a loss of income within…

Hi, I’m John, solicitor, and reviewing your post, and may need to ask a few questions a long the way to assist you.

Where you are starting to experience financial hardship, the Australian government has implemented procedures with Centrelink where you can get an urgent cash payment to assist with meeting your bills. In addition you can also access your superannuation in advance before July by taking $10,000 out without penalty and a further $10,000 out after July.

The Government is temporarily expanding eligibility to income support payments and establishing a new, time-limited Coronavirus supplement to be paid at a rate of $550 per fortnight. This supplement will be paid to both existing and new recipients of the eligible payment categories. These changes will apply for the next six months.

Eligibility

Payment categories

The income support payment categories eligible to receive the Coronavirus supplement are:

• Jobseeker Payment1 (and all payments progressively transitioning to JobSeeker Payment; those currently receiving Partner Allowance, Widow Allowance, Sickness Allowance and Wife Pension)
• Youth Allowance Jobseeker
• Parenting Payment (Partnered and Single)
• Farm Household Allowance
• Special Benefit recipients
  Anyone who is eligible for the Coronavirus supplement will receive the full rate of the supplement of $550 per fortnight.

The Australian government is implementing procedures very rapidly and you need to keep an eye on the newspapers which explain these procedures the Australian government is doing.

The government is providing a lot of support and you can find out about it here:

https://www.business.gov.au/Risk-management/Emergency-management/Coronavirus-information-and-support-for-business/Support-available-for-sole-traders

For example, did you know that if you are earning less than $1075 a fortnight that you are eligible for JobSeeker Payment? There have also been changes to waiting periods as well as the way that partner’s income is assessed which makes it easier for people to obtain a benefit.

LOAN PAYMENT DEFERRAL

Depending on who you bank with you may have access to defer your loan payments for up to 6 months. Be aware that whilst payments are deferred interest likely is not, this means that when you return to making payments your loan balance will likely have increased. More information is available in the below article:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-21/mortgage-pause-coronavirus-nab-commonwealth-anz-westpac/12076690

EARLY ACCESS TO SUPERANNUATION

The Government is allowing individuals affected by the Coronavirus to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation in 2019-20 and a further $10,000 in 2020-21.

Accessing your superannuation is not a decision to be made lightly, many people’s superannuation balances have already reduced due to the impacts of the virus and withdrawing your funds now means that you will miss out on any bounce back in the market. That said, for some people, this will be a necessity and you can find information on this here:

https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-03/Fact_sheet-Early_Access_to_Super_1.pdf

LOCK-DOWN CCS PAYMENTS

A lot has been spoken about the legislation that was introduced into Parliament yesterday regarding changes to CCS and we have also had a lot of questions in the office.

Your next step is to go online to Centrelink complete the necessary application forms, there are various help me he's on Centrelink website, and this will help you to get urgent cash payments to meet your bills as they fall due.

Thank you for reaching out today.

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