It’s no secret that Victoria is going through a lot of struggles right now with the Corona Virus crisis. Metro Melbourne was in stage 3 for the last 4 weeks and have been moved into stage 4, while the rest of Victoria have now been moved into stage 3.

Premier Andrews announced today there would be a further $5000 business support fund to help those impacted by Stage 4 restrictions which would take the total to $10,000 for Metropolitan Melbourne.  Regional Victoria would receive $5000 only as they are in stage 3. 

Myself and a lot of other traders out there have been impacted hard by these restrictions. The only difference is, we and others DO NOT employ staff so therefore are NOT eligible. 

The governments reasons for this is:

‘The program was created to support employing businesses that have been highly impacted by the return to Stay at Home restrictions.

Given the availability of JobKeeper and JobSeeker payment schemes for non-employing sole traders, the program was designed to support as many employing businesses as possible.’

What the Government doesn’t seem to realise is - yes we are receiving Job Keeper however most of us are not in a position to pay ourselves so JobKeeper is essentially our wage and is covering our personal outgoings such as rent, mortgage, food, utilities etc. 

JobKeeper does not help cover our business costs. It does not help pay commercial rent and other major suppliers.

JobKeeper is also only available to ONE person if you have multiple business partners. 

Another point to add is employing businesses have been given a payroll tax refund and waiver. I understand we are in no way entitled to this however employing businesses are being given a massive handout while the smaller businesses who cannot afford to hire staff are missing out.

I cannot speak for other businesses but mine has taken a massive financial hit. If I could get some help financially from the government, I know we will see the end of these lockdowns through. While we are lucky and are still able to trade as we are a cafe that does takeaway, however with everyone being forced to stay home, we are not to sure of how business will turn out. We are in no position to do deliveries so we are unable to expand our business any further during this time. By saying ‘we’ my partner and I own and operate our cafe together so we are essentially living off one wage (JobKeeper) at the moment. 

We really need your help as numerous emails and news coverage to Premier Andrews have gone unnoticed.