JobMaker Hiring Credit: with Crowley Calvert & Holmes

The Federal Government has introduced the new JobMaker program to offer businesses an incentive to hire new young staff in a bid to increase employment across Australia.

The JobMaker Hiring Credit works as follows:

This credit is available to employers from 7 October 2020 for each new job they create over the next 12 months for which they hire an eligible young person - to clarify, the new job must be created between 7 October 2020 and 6 October 2021.
An Eligible young person will have received JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance (other) or Parenting Payment for at least one of the previous three months at the time of hiring.
Employers must demonstrate that they have increased their overall employment to receive this payment for up to 12 months for each position created - eligibility conditions based on employer's headcount and payroll on 30 September 2020 to ensure employers claim credits only for additional jobs created and not for replacing existing employees.

For each eligible employee, employers will receive:

$200 per week for each eligible young person aged 16 to 29 years
$100 per week for each eligible young person aged 30 to 35 years

Payments will run for a maximum of 12 months from the date the new job is created - scheme therefore ends on 6 October 2022.

Eligible employees must have worked an average of at least 20 hours per week over the quarter for the employer to qualify for the payment - employees that start / stop employment during a quarter must meet a similar test based on the length of time employed during the period.

Employers are to register with the ATO and make claims quarterly, with claims commencing February 2021. An employer cannot claim JobKeeper and the JobMaker Hiring Credit at the same time.

Employers will be able to register for the scheme from 7 December 2020 via the ATO website.