A "significant" reporting error has seen the cost of the Morrison government's $130 billion JobKeeper scheme revised down to $70 billion, after some businesses filled out the application form incorrectly.
The Treasury department and the Australian Taxation Office advised government late on Thursday that about 1000 businesses had made an error when filling out the self-assessment enrolment form, when reporting the number of employees they expected to receive the benefit.
More than 500 businesses with one eligible employee instead wrote 1500 - a reference to the $1500 payment they expected to receive under the wage subsidy scheme.
The error means the number of likely recipients has been revised down from 6.5 million to 3.5 million.
The estimated cost of the scheme has been revised down to $70 billion, however it is a demand-driven program.
"This reporting error has come to light as the ATO and Treasury have been analysing the amounts being paid out under the scheme, reconciling these with the estimates provided by enrolled businesses of the likely number of eligible employees," Treasury said in a statement.
"It was not picked up by the ATO earlier as their primary focus in the first fortnight of JobKeeper payments was on ensuring that JobKeeper payments were paid promptly to those eligible for them, and not paid to those who were ineligible.
"These initial estimates from businesses of employees covered are not linked to payments, and so were not as carefully analysed."
READ MORE:
There are 910,055 businesses that have applied for JobKeeper so far, with 759,654 claims processed.
About $8.7 billion had been paid so far to 2.9 million employees.
About six million Australians were expected to be enrolled in the scheme when it was announced in March.
Treasury said the lower-than-expected demand was a result of the social distancing restrictions being lifted earlier than expected.
"This has been reflected in some improvement to the outlook for the economy since the original estimate was developed as a consequence of these and other factors," the department said.
"The variation in estimates also reflects the inherent uncertainty associated with estimating the take-up of a demand driven program in the current circumstances."
Labor MPs and unions have renewed calls for government to use the savings to extend the scheme to workers previously deemed ineligible.
Greens leader Adam Bandt simply said: "Wow." The party has been pushing for the government to extend JobKeeper to all workers who needed it and retain the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement.
Get Up's national director Paul Oosting said the scheme should be expanded to all the casuals and temporary visaholders who had been locked out.
"This has been one of the government's biggest policy failures in this pandemic, now they have the opportunity to step up and do the right thing," Mr Oosting said.
"If Scott Morrison doesn't use this opportunity to extend JobKeeper to casual workers and people on temporary visas then he cannot say it's because of the cost."
More to come
- For information on COVID-19, please go to the federal Health Department's website.
- You can also call the Coronavirus Health Information Line on 1800 020 080
- If you have serious symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, call Triple Zero (000)
Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. If you're looking to stay up to date on COVID-19, you can also sign up for our twice-daily digest here.