Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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245. To ask the Minister for Finance if an employer availing of the employment wage subsidy scheme who does not qualify on an end of month review during January 2021 to June 2021 has to repay the subsidy for the previously qualifying months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24494/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) was legislated for under the Financial Provisions (Covid-19) (No. 2) Act 2020. The EWSS is an economy-wide enterprise support for eligible businesses in respect of eligible employees. It provides a flat-rate subsidy to qualifying employers based on the numbers of paid and eligible employees on the employer’s payroll and charges a reduced rate of employer PRSI of 0.5% on wages paid which are eligible for the subsidy payment.

The objective of the EWSS is to support all employment and maintain the link between the employer and employee insofar as is possible. The EWSS has been a key component of the Government’s response to the continued Covid-19 crisis to support viable firms and encourage employment in the midst of these very challenging times. To date, payments of over €3 billion and PRSI credit of over €500 million have been granted to 48,900 employers in respect of 558,000 workers.

The EWSS is administered by Revenue on a 'self-assessment' basis. The eligibility criteria for EWSS provides that in addition to having tax clearance for the duration of the scheme, an employer must be able to demonstrate that their business is expected to experience a 30% reduction in turnover or customer orders between 1 July and 31 December 2020 for 2020 paydates and between 1 January to 30 June 2021 for 2021 paydates, looking at the period as a whole rather than on a monthly basis; and this disruption is caused by COVID-19.

Employers can register for the scheme where they have a reasonable expectation of meeting the requisite 30% trade test over the relevant period. It is expected that the budget assumptions which underpin the forward-looking projections will be reasonable in their basis, reflect the operating conditions of the business. The expectation is that those projections should remain materially unchanged over the relevant period. Where certain unforeseen events occur, which impact the original budget estimate, for example, the imposition of further public health restrictions (post the review date) impacting trade, receipt of an unexpected donation, entering into a significant new sales contract, etc. then this should be factored into a review of ongoing eligibility.

Employers must undertake a review of actual and projected trading performance over the six month period on the last day of every month (other than July 2020 and the final month of the scheme) in order to verify whether they continue to meet the eligibility conditions and to take the necessary action of withdrawing from the scheme where they no longer meet the conditions. The eligibility review must be undertaken on a rolling monthly basis comparing the actual and projected business performance over the specified period (July to December 2020 for 2020 paydates and January to June 2021 for 2021 paydates).

If an employer becomes aware prior to the end of the month that they will no longer meet the eligibility criteria (e.g. unexpected donation or grant received at the start of a month), they should deregister immediately and cease to claim subsidies. Where there were reasonable grounds at the start and the employer ceases when it is clear that it no longer qualifies, Revenue will not generally seek to claw back EWSS payments for earlier months. Employers are required to retain back up documentation supporting their eligibility on registration, and during each monthly review.

Where Revenue determines that an employer, at any time over the term of the scheme, claimed and received payment by applying accounting practices that are clearly not appropriate, or by deliberately misrepresenting the true financial situation of the business, it will be excluded from the EWSS in its entirety. No further claims will be accepted, and all subsidy paid and the PRSI credit issued will be repayable together with interest and penalties. The business may also face possible criminal prosecution.

Detailed guidelines on the operation of the scheme are available on Revenue’s website -