Small business owner’s retirement plans ruined by Covid lockdown

A Sydney business owner already knew she would have to work well past the time many people retire but now she is looking at a new grim reality.

A Sydney small business owner fears she will have to keep working into her 80s, as she watches her business crumble due to the city’s strict Covid lockdown now heading into its eighth week.

Olga Tamara, who turns 70 this year, has successfully run Authentic Pilates Studio in the inner west suburb of Lilyfield for the past two decades.

She was already working past the retirement age and even before lockdown was “not able to retire on the pension” because she didn’t have “enough retirement funds”.

Now she estimates she may have to work for a further 10 years at this current rate.

Since lockdown, revenue for the business is down 75 per cent and she works only three hours a week via Zoom.

“I have to use my savings to buy food, my bills, electricity, gas, for the mortgage, it’s eating into it,” Ms Tamara woman told news.com.au.

“My savings is my retirement, I can’t afford to retire now.

“I will probably have to keep working till I’m in my 80s.”

The Australian Retailers Association has warned that NSW is losing $1.5 billion every week as businesses like Ms Tamara’s bear the brunt of the lockdown restrictions.

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Olga Tamara is staring down years more of work before she can comfortably retire.

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Like most Sydneysiders, Ms Tamara thought the lockdown would be over quickly and painlessly.

Her savings would tide her over for two weeks, she thought.

But as Sydney’s cases continued to climb, she realised she had to resort to government help to keep herself afloat.

NSW’s daily locally acquired Covid-19 cases have continue to climb and there are no thoughts that lockdown will be over anytime soon.

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Her empty pilates studio in Lilyfield.

“The number of small businesses owned by people past retirement age who choose to keep working and not put a strain on social services, have paid their taxes for over 50 years and need the government financial support when it’s promised,” she said.

Ms Tamara applied for Jobsaver – a new initiative providing fortnightly payments of between $1500 and $100,000 for businesses with turnovers between $75,000 and $250 million.

She also applied for the Covid-19 Business Grant, which gives a one-off grant of $7,500, $10,500 or $15,000 to a business with more than $75,000 in turnover in a normal year.

Despite applying in mid-July, she got “not one cent” and was still waiting to hear back from the government four weeks later.

After news.com.au flagged Ms Tamara’s case to Service NSW, her grant was approved in less than an hour.

She is now waiting for the one-off lump sum that she says will help with her expenses, but certainly doesn’t cover everything.

“I still have to pay for space, I’ve still got overheads, still got memberships, registrations, insurance,” she said.

“All those things keep going. They don’t stop because we stop.”

The woman added that she felt “small business were slowly drowning in quicksand”.

A full pilates class prior to Sydney’s 2021 lockdown.

Ms Tamara is not alone.

Another pilates instructor from Sydney, who asked not to be named, said she “burst into tears” because she couldn’t navigate the Service NSW website where she could apply for the grant.

She went into a physical Service NSW centre.

A staff member admitted to her that they didn’t know how and they spent the next 2.5 hours getting nowhere and in the end she gave up.

As a result, she still hasn’t applied for a grant even though she’s eligible.

A NSW cafe owner reached out to news.com.au, desperate because his revenue was down by 90 per cent compared to pre-lockdown times.

The government approved his grant seven weeks ago but he has yet to receive any money in his bank account.

“Please urge the government to do its bit otherwise we will see a rise in homelessness and many businesses going broke,” he wrote.

“We have not received a single cent from the government yet.

“Landlord is asking for commercial rent but I’m not in a position to pay.”

Government response

Service NSW – who is in charge of the grants – said in a statement to news.com.au that they had so far approved three quarters of the applications coming through.

A spokesperson said: “Service NSW is working seven days a week to assess applications, clear the backlog and ensure eligible businesses receive funding as quickly as possible.

“More than 263,000 applications have been lodged across all three grants (Jobsaver, the Covid-19 Business Grant and the Covid-19 Micro Business Grant).

“About 75 per cent of applications across all three grants have been approved equating to $1.5 billion.

“Of this, more than $1.1 billion has been paid, with the remainder to be paid in the next few days.

“Outstanding applications include new applicants, or applications that require further information to be able to proceed.”

Have you had a similar experience? Contact Alex on [e-mail].

Originally published as Small business owner’s retirement plans ruined by Covid lockdown