Exactly when the COVID-19 Disaster Payment will end

As the nation continues to open up the Government will cease the COVID-19 Disaster Payments (Source: Getty)

About half a million Aussies are currently depending on the COVID-19 Disaster Payment and the Federal Government has begun phasing it out.

The payment is costing the Government around $1 billion a week and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has repeatedly maintained it won’t be around forever.

However, the phasing out of the payments has left some confused because there is no specific date mentioned for when the payments will end.

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Here’s a breakdown of when you can expect your COVID-19 relief payments to come to an end.

Disaster payment phasing out

What is it?

The COVID-19 Disaster Payment helps workers who are unable to earn money as a result of a COVID-19 lockdown or being in a hotspot zone.

The disaster payment gives $750 a week to people who have lost at least 20 hours of work, and $450 a week to those who have lost between eight and 20 hours.

It was rolled out as a way to replace the JobKeeper payments, to help those who were impacted by lockdowns when the COVID-19 delta variant swept through the nation.

When will it end?

When the payment will end depends on which state you live in. States that have surpassed the 70 per cent vaccination rate have already begun phasing out the payments.

At 70 per cent, people will need to reapply for the payment each week and at 80 per cent, the payments begin to taper off within two weeks.

This means the payments will be reduced in NSW from $750 a week to $450 a week as of today.

Next week it will fall again to $320, and the week after that it will be gone entirely.

At this stage, that means that for NSW residents the payments will end on 1 November, 2021.

Victorian residents are set to hit the 70 per cent vaccination rate on Friday this week, which is when those claiming the disaster payment will need to reapply each week.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said the state was on track to hit the 80 per cent vaccination rate a matter of days after hitting the 70 per cent threshold. At that point, the payments would start tapering off.

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