To maintain employment during the epidemic, the Government has launched the “Employment Support Scheme” (ESS) to provide time-limited financial support to employers to retain employees who may otherwise be made redundant. The wage subsidies provided to eligible employers under ESS are disbursed in two tranches: the 1sttranche of subsidies are used for paying wages of employees from June to August 2020; and the 2^nd tranche for paying wages of employees from September to November 2020. Online applications for the 2^nd tranche of wage subsidies will be accepted from 31 August until 13 September 2020.

 
Eligible Employers

• All employers who have set up accounts for Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) or Occupational Retirement Schemes (ORSO) on or before March 31, 2020 (i.e. no backdating to or before that date).

• Employers who have applied for the first tranche of wage subsidies (whether the application is successful or not) must submit a new application.

• Employers applying for the second tranche of wage subsidies under ESS can choose any one month between December 2019 and March 2020 as the “specified month”. Employers who applied for the 1^st tranche of subsidies may choose another month as the “specified month” in the 2^nd tranche.

• The amount of wage subsidies will be calculated based on 50% of the actual wages paid to each employee in the “specified month”, with a wage cap at $18,000 per month. The maximum wage subsidy per employee is $9,000 per month.

• The 2nd tranche of the ESS covers employees aged 65 or above who have MPF accounts evenif employers have not made any voluntary contributions for such employees.The amount of wage subsidies will be calculated based on the number of such employees aged 65 or above engaged in the “specified month”, with a subsidy of $5,000 per employee per month.

 
Eligible Self-Employed Person

Self-employed persons,who have set up an active MPF account on or before March 31, 2020 (excluding backdating), which has not been terminated as of that date, and did not receive the one-off lump-sum subsidy of $7,500 under the 1st tranche of ESS can apply for a one-off lump-sum subsidy in the 2nd tranche.


Required Undertakings

• Not to implement redundancy during the subsidy period;and

• To spend all the government wage subsidies on paying wages to their employees.

 
Non-compliance will cause the Government to claw back the unspent balance of the subsidy back plus additional penalty.
 
For more information, please contact Ms. Amie Cheung at amie.cheung@lccpa.com.hk