New Zealand’s Ministry of Social Development made the announcement on Thursday evening, September 2, at 8 pm, that applications for wage subsidies closed four hours earlier. There was a mistake in the announcement that the government agency made. As announced on a Facebook post, the ministry declared that out of fairness to businesses which had already filed the claiming of subsidies before the mistake was made, the applications were extended until 7 am on Friday morning, September 3.
A business owner argued, though, that businesses who applied at the last minute may find it hard to see that Facebook post. According to the ministry, one of the business owners was so furious that he requested for an appropriate extension of the deadline and an apology.
Many more businesses announced they have had problems making an early application for second batches of wage subsidies. Applications for these subsidies was originally supposed to open at 9 am. There were reports that businesses had to submit their applications over and over again, after getting error messages. In other instances, no success was generated in resubmitting applications.
The services manager for Ministry of Social Development, Jason Dwen, confessed he did not know of any blackouts on Friday, thinking that there was no problem processing wage subsidies applications.
Word has it that the error ,which occurred on Thursday, within 8 pm to 10 pm, happened due to the procedure being implemented to boost the website in receiving second batch of subsidy applications on Friday.
According to Stuff.co.nz, Dwen has stated: ““We’re working through a process to deal with people who feel they have missed out.” He further stated that: “A complaint form is available on the Work and Income website and we’ll be in contact as soon as possible to discuss,”
Late in the evening during the day, at 10:30 pm, subsidy applications seemed to have reopened, according to a statement that National Party social development spokeswoman, Louise Upston, said. Upston further stated that there should have been more thorough and complete IT facilities testing in preparation for a new coronavirus spread.
Upston likewise warned that subsidy applications’ cut off was 11:59 pm on Thursday for the disbursement of first batch of subsidy payments, during which the entire New Zealand was in 4th level of quarantine.
According to Upston, the National Party still has yet to progressively hear out business owners that had already filed subsidy applications, but, have not received accommodations nor payments after getting approvals.
