We have just received notification that our application for assistance under the Small Business Lockdown Assistance Grant Program has been refused because the business was not within the eligible primary business activity.

When the lockdown was initially announced we made the decision to close our business over the period because “it was the right thing to do”.  We primarily service the recreational fishing industry and with the “stay at home” and “one hour of exercise within 5km of your home” directives, recreational fishing was not considered an option under lockdown conditions.  These are difficult times and everyone must “do their bit”, but we all heard the rhetoric from the politicians saying that small business that was genuinely impacted by the decision would be compensated for losses incurred to the tune of $3k.

When the applications for assistance opened, I must admit to being a little perplexed by the eligibility criteria (see https://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/SBDC-Lockdown-Grants-Round-2.pdf).  No worries I thought, there is a category for sport and recreation and we would have no problem demonstrating 100% reduction in turnover over the period as we closed our business to the public.  It however seems that a bureaucrat has assessed us as not eligible because services to the recreational fishing industry does not meet the criteria for sport and physical recreation under the guidelines.

I get it, there has to be guidelines regarding eligibility so the grant program is targeted at the right places.  What I don’t understand is how a small business that essentially has to close over lockdown is not eligible because of some poorly worded guidelines around primary business activity.  It just doesn’t make sense to me that businesses that were allowed to remain open are eligible if they could demonstrate a 30% loss of turnover, where we endured 100% loss in turnover and have been refused.

Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy to be situated in WA where the State’s policies have provided for generally minimal disruptions to normal business conditions – no doubt eastern states businesses are doing it a lot harder than us.  However, the option to review the decision is open and I lodged an application for review within an hour of the refusal notification (the text is included below).  In the scheme of things, it is not a lot of money but it would compensate for the loss of revenue over the lockdown period which I thought was the intention of the grant program.

Anyway, I am not holding my breath for a favourable review decision and will accept the "umpire's decision".  Time to head off for my second jab today, and hopefully lockdowns will be a thing of the past soon.

Mick

This email seeks a review of decision in relation to the above application.  In support of the review, the below facts and circumstances are relevant.

1. The business meets the eligibility criteria for Items 1 to 4 without question.

2. The business meets the eligibility criteria for Item 5 for the following reasons:

·         The business operates solely in the sport and physical recreation sector;

·         The primary business activity is services to sport and physical recreation;

·         The sport and physical recreation activity that the business serves was a prohibited activity during the nominated lockdown period; and

·         The business was closed during the nominated lockdown period because of the customers prohibited sport and physical recreation activity.

3. The review should examine the actual facts and circumstances that clearly demonstrate the main business activity is intrinsically linked to sport and physical recreation to the point that it cannot be distinguished from it.

4. The business suffered 100% loss in revenue over the lockdown period as a direct result of the lockdown conditions issued by the Western Australian Government.

We believe the decision is unjust and unfair.  We genuinely suffered financial loss and hardship over the lockdown period as we did the responsible thing and closed our business.  It is very disappointing that an ill informed analysis has somehow determined that our main business activity is not sport and physical recreation based. 

We were of the opinion that the Small Business Lockdown Assistance Grants were designed to support small businesses such as ours that were most impacted by the lockdown conditions, and meet the eligibility criteria.  This does not seem to be the case in our circumstance, and hence the request for a review.