Employment Support Scheme to disburse fifth batch of wage subsidies

This batch will receive an average wage subsidy of about $460,000.

The Employment Support Scheme will be rolling out the fifth batch of wage subsidies to around 9,000 employer applicants by next week, a press release revealed. These subsidies totalled $4.2b and are covering more than 190,000 employees.

A government spokesman explains that this batch will receive an average wage subsidy of about $460,000, which is higher than the average subsidy of $214,000 in the first three batches of approved employers. However, it is lower than the average subsidy of $565,000 in the fourth batch. About 4% of the successful applicants in the fifth batch comprise large-scale enterprises with 50 or more employees.

In addition, about 2,000 self-employed persons (SEPs) will receive a one-off lump sum subsidy of $7,500 by next week as well, amounting to $15m.

Overall, the ESS scheme disbursed $29.6b in wage subsidies, benefitting 110,000 employers and more than 1.3 million employees. Further, about 86,000 SEPs in these five batches have or will receive a one-off subsidy of $7,500, collecting about $650m.