Businesses ordered shut & not on wage supplement can now apply for ‘maximum assistance’

In an update by Malta Enterprise, the agency said employees and self-employed working in businesses that have been ordered to shut down due to the new health restrictions, and which were not benefitting from the COVID Wage Supplement, “can now apply for the maximum assistance”.

Maximum assistance refers to the full €800 wage subsidy.

Such assistance will cover up until when their place of work is kept closed by the health authorities. This measure is understood to cover businesses and companies that opened up after March 2020.

“In view of this, businesses which have been asked to close down, and which up till now were not benefitting from such assistance, will now be able to apply for the COVID Wage supplement covering only the period in which their shops are closed.”

The link for the application will be available covid19.maltaenterprise.com late next week.

Malta Enterprise said the first payment will cover a period of three weeks, 8th March – 26th March.

For further information, prospective applicants are encouraged to reach Malta Enterprise by calling 144 or by sending an email on covid19@maltaenterprise.com

Meanwhile, companies that are benefitting from the COVID Wage Supplement and which haven’t been requested to close their businesses shall continue to benefit from the scheme based on loss of revenue in 2020 as compared to 2019, the Government agency concluded.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced a fresh round of restrictions, to last until 11th April, such as the closure of non-essential shops and services, pools, gyms, cinemas, theatres, museums, wedding celebrations and religious events, barring funerals.

Non-essential shops had been shuttered during Malta’s first wave of the pandemic, between 23rd March and 4th May 2020.

Under the 2020 COVID Wage supplement, businesses had complained that new staff brought on to replace anybody let go post 9th March 2020 were not eligible for the wage supplement. This measure was intended to entice entities not to let staff go.

In the 2021 version, the NACE industry categorisation approach was scrapped, with the Government switching to loss of turnover as a basis for providing aid. Here, it had also announced that employees replaced in 2020 would be paid through the wage supplement from October 2020.