Snippets February 2021

Covid Support Packages

While we have enjoyed relative freedom in New Zealand, the Government has continued to work on Covid-19 support packages.

The COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme allows those who have been told to self-isolate, to receive two weeks income if they are unable to work from home. In addition to this scheme, from mid-February 2021 a Short-Term Absence Payment will be available for those who need to stay at home while awaiting a COVID-19 test result.

The Business Finance Guarantee scheme can be applied for until 30 June 2021 and allows small and medium sized businesses access to up to $5 million to support operating cashflow and asset purchases, as well as helping respond or recover from COVID-19. This scheme is supported by the Government so if the business defaults on the debt the lender can claim 80% of the defaulted debt from the Government.

Applications remain open until the end of 2023 for the Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme, which allows organisations that employ 50 or fewer employees that have been adversely affected by COVID-19, access to a one-off 5-year loan. Organisations can draw down up to $10,000, plus an additional $1,800 per employee. No repayments are required for the first two years, however, following this the interest rate increases from 0% to 3%.

Until April 2022, the Apprenticeship Boost Initiative will be available to support employers of first and second year apprentices. The amount of funding received a month depends on when an apprentice started their training. Employers can use the funding to top up apprentices’ wages to at least the minimum wage.

The various wage subsidy schemes can no longer be applied for. These are only put in place if the Alert Level increases to Level 3 or 4 for 7 days or more, so hopefully we don’t see these again.

Pink collar crimes

We have likely all heard about white collar crimes, where financially motivated nonviolent crimes such as embezzlement are committed by high profile business people. However, pink collar crimes, referring to typically female office workers in low-to mid-level positions who steal money from their employers, have been on the increase.

One of the largest instances was in Singapore where an accounts clerk embezzled more than $46 million over 7 years by depositing business cheques into a personal account used to fuel a gambling habit.

In New Zealand a McDonalds Manager stole $166,000 as she was able to authorise cash refunds to customers. It wasn’t until an internal audit disclosed the disproportionally high amount of refunds paid out when the particular manager was on duty, that she was apprehended. Further examples include an accounts clerk paying herself just under $90,000 in wages in a 12-week period and a casino worker stealing $45,000 in gambling tokens in the space of one month.

Does this mean that the innocent accounts clerk, bookkeeper or manager may not be as innocent as we all think? Well potentially. Companies continue to invest large amounts of money into anti-fraud systems and in some cases even have teams in place to detect such occurrences. So how does this go unnoticed? A couple of hundred dollars here and there can be harder to spot, but eventually adds up.

Along with high-tech software detection systems, don’t forget to just look out the window and ask yourself, how does your employee afford the insurance on her Ferrari?