Task force allows return of subsidies given to firms

The Small Business Wage Subsidy (SBWS) Program Task Force (SPTF) has resolved to allow the voluntary return of the subsidies until June 30 this year in response to requests from employers and employees who were still unable to give it back despite previous extensions of its deadline to return subsidies.

The Task Force had previously announced through a resolution dated May 28, 2020, further amended last June 13, that a return of the subsidy must be made by employers or employees, as the case may be, for: employers who failed to maintain the employment status of all employee beneficiaries before the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in 2020 and throughout the SBWS or misrepresented in their application material facts relevant to the eligibility of their employees; employees who resigned during the period of ECQ and modified ECQ imposed in Luzon and other parts of the country in 2020; and employers of the beneficiaries of the Department of Labor and Employment's (DoLE) Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) Adjustment Measures Program (DoLE-CAMP) who received the full amount of the second tranche of the SBWS.