Open for Applications on May 25, 2020
Employment Support Scheme approves sixth batch of applications for wage subsidies
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202007/17/P2020071700681.htm
The Employment Support Scheme (ESS) Secretariat has approved the sixth batch of applications for wage subsidies and will commence next week the disbursement of wage subsidies to about 12,000 successful employer applicants, with subsidies totalling about $4.7 billion and a total committed headcount of paid employees of about 200,000. The Secretariat will publish the name list of the employers concerned upon the completion of the disbursement. Together with the first five batches of employers who received wage subsidies, the ESS Secretariat has disbursed wage subsidies totalling $34.2 billion to nearly 121,500 employers in the six batches, with a total committed headcount of paid employees of more than 1.47 million. After excluding 12,000 ineligible applicants who have not been approved for wage subsidies, the ESS Secretariat has completed processing nearly 80 per cent of the applications received from employers.
Employment Support Scheme publishes the fourth batch of employers receiving wage subsidies and disburses the fifth batch of wage subsidies
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202007/14/P2020071400388.htm
The name list of the fourth batch of employers published on July 14 covers about 11,000 employers. These employers have received wage subsidies totalling about $6.27 billion (for June to August 2020) and committed to maintaining a total paid headcount of about 270,000. Together with the published name list of the first three batches of employers, the ESS Secretariat published from June 22 up to today the name list of four batches of about 100,000 employers who received wage subsidies and the relevant information. The Secretariat has also commenced the disbursement of wage subsidies to the fifth batch of some 9,000 successful employer applicants, with subsidies totalling about $4.1 billion and a total committed headcount of paid employees of about 190,000. In other words, five batches of about 110,000 employers have already received wage subsidies, covering about 1.3 million employees, totalling about $29.5 billion.
Employment Support Scheme publishes the third batch of employers receiving wage subsidies (July 6)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202007/06/P2020070600246.htm
The ESS Secretariat published the name list of the two batches of employers who received wage subsidies on June 22 and June 29 respectively. The name list of the third batch of employers published today covers about 30 000 employers. These employers have received wage subsidies totalling about $7.7 billion (for June to August 2020) and committed to maintaining a total paid headcount exceeding 330 000 during the subsidy period.
Employment Support Scheme publishes the second batch of employers receiving wage subsidies (June 29)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202006/29/P2020062900179.htm
The ESS Secretariat published the name list of the first batch of employers who received wage subsidies on June 22. The name list of the second batch of employers published today covers about 33,679 employers, 98 per cent of whom are micro-, small- or medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 50 employees. These employers have received wage subsidies totalling about $6.5 billion (for June to August 2020) and committed to maintaining a total paid headcount exceeding 280,000.
Ineligible applicants being notified of the result of their application for a one-off lump-sum subsidy under the Employment Support Scheme (June 26)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202006/25/P2020062500591.htm
The Employment Support Scheme (ESS) received a total of 259 860 applications for the one-off lump-sum subsidy of $7,500 for self-employed persons (SEPs) during the application period. Of these, about 140 000 applications have not been approved due to ineligibility. The ESS Secretariat or the processing agent are sending notifications to these applicants.
Government responds to media enquiries on Employment Support Scheme (June 23)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202006/23/P2020062300887.htm
Under the first tranche of ESS, employers applying for ESS can choose any one month from December 2019 to March 2020 as a “specified month” having regard to the circumstances of their enterprises. The amount of wage subsidies will be calculated based on 50 per cent of the actual wages paid to each employee in the “specified month”, with a wage cap of $18,000 per month (i.e. the maximum wage subsidy per employee at $9,000 per month). It should be noted that this only serves as the basis for calculating the wage subsidies instead of the maximum subsidies that the employers can use for paying wages for each employee, nor that the employers have to spend the wage subsidy on each employee on a reimbursement basis.
Employment Support Scheme receives nearly 430 000 applications (June 15)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202006/15/P2020061500579.htm
At the close of applications for the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) on June 14, the Government had received a total of 428 659 applications, including 168 799 applications from employers and 259 860 applications from self-employed persons (SEPs) … a total of around $4.8 billion has been disbursed to the first batch of 25 500 employers, which is estimated to benefit more than 200 000 employees. Ninety-eight per cent of the employers receiving wage subsidies are micro or small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 50 employees. All employers receiving wage subsidies have undertaken not to make redundancies during the subsidy period (i.e. June to August) when submitting applications and to spend all the wage subsidies on paying wages to the employees. In addition, the first batch of 24 000 SEP applicants has received a one-off lump sum subsidy of $7,500 each into their assigned bank accounts. The total sum of the subsidy involved is about $180 million.
Employment Support Scheme (LegCo question) (June 10)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202006/10/P2020061000310.htm
Employment Support Scheme receives over 130 000 applications (May 26)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202005/26/P2020052600749.htm
Up to 6 pm on May 26, a total of around 72,000 applications from employers and about 61,000 applications from self-employed persons.
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The ESS website has a comprehensive set of FAQs which have taken into consideration questions raised by chambers and other parties. Please take a look: https://www.ess.gov.hk/en/faq.html
In regards to whether the HKSARG will publish the names of companies that have applied to the ESS – the answer is “Yes”.
The Government is adopting a transparent approach, including announcing the list of employers who have received subsidies, the total number of employees who have benefited and the number of subsidies to enable monitoring by employees and society. The list will be published upon the completion of the disbursement of the first tranche of wage subsidies.
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Employment Support Scheme receives an overwhelming response on the first day of application (May 25)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202005/25/P2020052500823.htm
Up to 6 pm on May 25, over 41 000 applications from employers and about 27 000 applications from self-employed persons had been received. Eligible employers and self-employed persons can submit online applications for the first tranche of wage subsidies through the ESS Online Portal at www.ess.gov.hk until 11:59 pm on June 14 (Sunday).
The first tranche of wage subsidy under the Employment Support Scheme is to receive applications from May 25 (May 12)
https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202005/12/P2020051200764.htm
Generally speaking, with the exception of ineligible employers (mainly organisations whose employees’ salaries are not affected by the epidemic, for example, the HKSAR Government, statutory bodies, and subvented organisations with employees’ salaries subsidised by the Government), all employers who have been making MPF contributions for employees (including Master Trust Schemes and Industry Schemes) or who have set up MPF-exempted Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance (ORSO) schemes, may apply for ESS. To further clarify eligibility and to prevent people from applying for wage subsidy by establishing a new company and opening MPF accounts, the MPF accounts of the relevant employers and employees applying for the wage subsidy should have been set up on or before March 31, 2020 (i.e. cannot be backdated to that date or any earlier dates). In other words, employers with MPF accounts set up on or after April 1, 2020, will not be eligible for the first tranche of wage subsidy. Employers participating in the ESS must provide an undertaking not to make redundancies during the subsidy period, and spend all the wage subsidies on paying wages to the employees.
1. Can non-profit organisations such as chambers of commerce apply? (They set up as a company, employees paying MPF)
Non-profit organisations will be eligible for the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) so long as they have been making Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) contributions or have set up Occupational Retirement Schemes (ORSO schemes) for their employees. The wage subsidies provided by the Government will be calculated on the basis of 50% of wages in the “specified month”. Employers may choose any one month from January to March 2020 as the “specified month” depending on the circumstances of their businesses.
2. It is understood the number of staff must remain constant from March – through the life of the ESS. However, can the individual staff members change?
Eligible employers joining the ESS will be required to provide an undertaking not to implement redundancy during the subsidy period and to spend all the government wage subsidies in paying wages to their employees. We allow the composition of employees during the subsidy period (for example in June) to be different from that of March, so long as the employers will not implement redundancy in overall terms during the subsidy period.
3. Can that number include staff who are retained but whose hours are reduced? That is, can this cover staff who are working reduced hours?
We allow the working hours of individual employees during the subsidy period to be different from January to March 2020. The employees may be engaged in full-time or part-time work as each enterprise’s circumstances differ during the subsidy period.