NSW Covid-19 business grant website crashes due to ‘unprecedented demand’

So many NSW business owners have applied for emergency grants that a website set up to handle the requests crashed on Monday.

A website set up by the NSW government to handle applications for a lockdown grant for businesses went down on Monday because the server couldn’t handle the “unprecedented demand”.

Other grant websites were affected as well, including one set up to help regional communities fight the mouse plague.

A notice on the Service NSW website for the 2021 Covid-19 business grant read: “Temporarily unavailable”.

“We‘re receiving unprecedented demand for the 2021 COVID-19 business grant,” the notice continued.

“We’re working through the demand and ask that you kindly come back to complete your transaction this afternoon. We assure you that you will not miss out on this grant by returning later. Apologies for the inconvenience.”

A NSW government website set up for the payment of lockdown grants to affected businesses has crashed,

A spokeswoman for Service NSW, which is responsible for the grant website, said the department was investigating why the site went down.

“Service NSW confirms it is experiencing a network outage affecting a number of grant programs including the 2021 COVID-19 business grant, export assistance, small business fees and charges rebate and the mouse control rebate,” she said.

“Service NSW is investigating the outage and working to restore services as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience.”

The grant is available to businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus restrictions in NSW.

Eligible businesses must have been operating in NSW before June 1, have paid less than $10 million in wages as at July 1 last year, and have an annual turnover between $75,000 and $50 million for the previous financial year.

The business must also have had no other government support for business costs, and to have retained all its employees since July 13.

Grants are available in three sizes:

• $7,500 for a decline of 30% or more
• $10,500 for a decline of 50% or more
• $15,000 for a decline of 70% or more

The grant was introduced to soothe some of the financial pains felt by businesses because of the lockdown in Sydney and restrictions in other parts of the state.

NSW has recorded over 1300 local coronavirus cases in little more than a month.

The initial case in an airport driver was discovered on June 16, and 10 days later Sydney went into lockdown.

The lockdown was slated to last two weeks, but has been extended until at least July 30.

Over the weekend, the government ordered all construction in the state to be put on hold, vastly increasing the number of workers who would need financial support.

The construction ban came into effect on Monday.