COVID-19 Resurgence Support Payment (RSP)

The Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) is a payment to help support viable and ongoing businesses or organisations which have experienced a decline in revenue due to a COVID-19 alert level increase to level 2 or higher. If your business or organisation is facing a reduction in revenue due to an alert level increase, you may be eligible for the RSP.

Apply for the Resurgence Support Payment

Applications for the alert level increase announced on 17 August are still open.

What the RSP is

Each time the COVID-19 alert level is increased from level 1, the Government may decide to activate the Resurgence Support Payment. It will generally be activated when the period of increased alert level is 7 days or longer, but this is not guaranteed. Once the RSP has been activated, it will be available nationally, even if the alert level isn't increased across the whole country.

The Government may also decide to make more than 1 payment available under the RSP during an extended period of an increase in alert levels. Businesses and organisations can apply for each payment period available under the RSP as long as they meet the eligibility criteria for each payment.

A 2nd payment is available to eligible businesses and organisations which experience a 30% decline in revenue due to the increased alert levels, for the period starting 8 September 2021 and ending immediately before all areas of New Zealand return to alert level 1. Applications for this second payment opened on 17 September.

A 3rd payment under the RSP scheme is available to eligible businesses and organisations which experience a 30% decline in revenue due to the increased alert levels, for the period starting 1 October 2021 and ending immediately before all areas of New Zealand return to alert level 1.

Applications for a 4th payment round are planned to open on 29 October.

How the RSP works

A business or organisation must have experienced at least a 30% drop in revenue or a 30% decline in capital-raising ability over a 7-day period, due to the increased COVID-19 alert level.

Once activated, any business in New Zealand that has experienced a 30% drop in revenue over a 7-day period at the increased alert levels as a result of the alert level increase may be eligible (subject to all other criteria being met).

How much eligible businesses and organisations can apply for

When the RSP is activated, eligible businesses and organisations can apply to receive the lesser of:

• $1,500 plus $400 per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee, up to a maximum of 50 FTEs
• four times (4x) the actual revenue decline experienced by the applicant.

Receiving payments and tax obligations

Payments received under the RSP are not subject to income tax. Expenditure funded by payments under the RSP is not deductible. GST-registered businesses will return GST on payments received under the RSP. These businesses will be able to claim input tax deductions for expenditure funded by payments under the RSP. The payment must be used to cover business expenses such as wages and fixed costs.