Employment Support Scheme publishes third batch of employers receiving wage subsidies
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"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," a Government spokesman said.
Furthermore, the ESS Secretariat has today commenced the disbursement of wage subsidies to the fourth batch of some 11 000 successful employer applicants, with subsidies totalling about $6.3 billion and a total committed headcount of paid employees of about 270 000. The Secretariat will publish the name list of the employers concerned upon completion of the subsidy disbursement. The Secretariat will also disburse the $7 500 one-off subsidy to the fourth batch of about 10 000 Self-employed Persons (SEPs).
The first tranche of the ESS closed on June 14 and received a total of 168 799 applications from employers and 259 860 from SEPs. As of now, the ESS Secretariat and the processing agent have completed processing over 100 000 applications from employers, which is 60 per cent of the total applications from employers, involving a total wage subsidy of $25.4 billion and benefitting 1.11 million employees. As for SEPs, a total of about 84 000 qualified SEPs each has been disbursed with the $7 500 one-off subsidy, totaling $630 million.
The spokesman said that the ESS Secretariat and processing agent will continue to process the remaining applications from employers and SEPs, with a view to completing the processing of all eligible applications in mid-July. Amongst these applications, about 23 000 employers have not provided the supplementary bank and/or MPF account information. The ESS Secretariat and the processing agent are carrying on liaising and following up the cases, with a view to completing the processing of applications expeditiously.
Ends/Monday, July 6, 2020
Issued at HKT 11:05
Issued at HKT 11:05
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