The Australian Council of Social Service welcomes changes to JobKeeper eligibility for charities and not-for-profits announced by the Federal Government on Friday, which will help ensure that crucial services can continue to be provided to those most at risk in this crisis.
Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:
“ACOSS sincerely thanks the Federal Government for listening to the concerns of our sector, and extending further the eligibility for JobKeeper to more charitable organisations. Community sector organisations are working hard to provide crucial services to those most vulnerable in this crisis, including food relief, homelessness and domestic violence services, and need every support we can provide. The adjustments made to the eligibility for JobKeeper will provide huge relief to many more community organisations, saving more jobs, and services across the community. We thank all those across Government and also the Parliament who made it possible to achieve this result,” Dr Goldie said.
As the Treasurer’s media release states:
“Changes will allow charities (other than schools and universities) to elect to exclude government revenue from the JobKeeper turnover test. This will allow employing charities receiving revenue from government to use either their total turnover, or their turnover excluding government revenue, for the purposes of assessing eligibility for the JobKeeper Payment. This will help to ensure that the eligibility of charities is not adversely affected where they are delivering significant services that are funded by government.”
ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie thanked the community sector for its support in communicating the need for these changes to Government.
“We have worked closely together across the community sector to advocate for these changes which mean more workers in community services will be able to continue to do their important work helping others.
“The additional adjustments made over the weekend were necessary as community sector organisations are under contractual obligations to use funding from various sources for specific programs. Revenue is not able to be shifted across areas of an organisation as easily as it is in businesses, and there is no profit margin.
“With large drops in revenue from some sources of financial support, many jobs were still at risk. These changes to JobKeeper will greatly assist many more across the sector. We will continue to advocate on behalf of the community sector so it can continue to help those in need. This is fundamental to ensuring nobody is left behind in this health, economic and social crisis.”
