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Philippines: Government mulls deadline extension for subsidy program
MANILA, Philippines — The government will evaluate if there is a need to extend the April 30 deadline of application for the Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) program after the Social Security System’s website crashed due to huge traffic.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the extension is being considered while the SSS is fixing its system, which has been down since Friday last week.
Earlier, the SSS said its website crashed due to high online traffic following the launch of the wage subsidy program. SSS said it is updating its website capacity to accommodate the surge.
In the meantime, the state pension fund sent out emails for alternative application arrangements to SBWS-eligible employers.
“We have completed sending emails to 114,000 employers and they will access the Microsoft cloud. (They were) given links and documents to fill up for the employers and employees,” the SSS said in a text message shared by Dominguez.
Under the SBWS program, employees of small business owners will receive cash aids ranging from P5,000 to P8,000 per month, depending on the regions where they are employed.
The first tranche of the subsidy will be distributed from May 1 to 15, while the second tranche will be released from May 16 to 31.
To qualify, the applicant must be an employee of an eligible small business; employed and active as of March 1, 2020, but unable to work due to the enhanced community quarantine; and have not been paid for at least two weeks. They must be certified by the employer as having met all the criteria.
The owner or operator of the small business will be the one to apply on behalf of the eligible workers, the DOF said.
The employer, however, must first check the BIR website to see if his or her company is qualified under the SBWS.
According to the DOF, the company must not be in the BIR’s Large Taxpayer Service (LTS) list; and must be in non-essential industries that are forced to stop operations or quasi-essential industries that are allowed to operate a skeleton force.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/04/22/2008811/government-mulls-deadline-extension-subsidy-program