$4.5b in Covid disaster support payments help 1.8m people

More than $4.5 billion in Covid disaster support payments has been paid to 1.8 million people in less than two months. See how much your state has received.

More than $4.5 billion in Covid disaster support payments have already been paid since the scheme was announced in early June, with the bulk of the money going to NSW.

Data from the Morrison government shows this year’s successor to 2020’s JobKeeper has gone to 1.8 million.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Covid disaster payments were helping those who needed it most. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

Under the scheme, eligible workers get $750 a week if they have lost 20 hours or more of work, while those who have lost fewer hours and/or a full day of work are receiving $450.

People on income support payment are eligible for weekly payment of $200 if they can show they have lost more than 8 hours of work and meet the other eligibility requirements for the payment.

Unsurprisingly, the two states with the hardest lockdowns have had the vast majority of the money.

NSW has received $3.2 billion to boost the incomes of around 1.1 million individuals, followed by Victoria, where 430,000 people have shared $950 million.

Although Queensland has avoided the extended stops to the economies of the two largest states, 220,000 people have received $260 million between them.

Similarly, $50 million has made its way to South Australia to prop up the incomes of around 85,000 people.

Even the ACT, which locked down for little more than two weeks, has had $60 million go to 50,000 individuals, while $1.6 million has flowed to the NT to help around 2,400 individuals.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the plan agreed by the Doherty Institute charted a route out of the pandemic by setting vaccination targets needed to safely re-open the country.

“Australians are rolling up their sleeves in record numbers and our vaccination targets are now within sight,” he said.

“As we work towards our goals, the Covid Disaster Payment is supporting workers who need it most.

He said the payments were in addition to the billions of dollars in business support the government had provided in partnership with every state and territory.”

Mr Frydenberg said workers who had lost 8 hours or more of work as a result of a lockdown were able to make a claim for the payment right now.

But he stressed that vaccination was the only means “by which we can safely open up the economy, kids can go back to school, people can go back to work and we can again move freely around our country”.