Aged Care Worker COVID-19 Leave Payment

Under this grant opportunity, Australian Government funded aged care providers, both residential and home care providers, will be able to apply for reimbursement of sick leave payments for directly employed permanent and casual workers, where the eligible employee is unable to attend work due to a COVID-19 infection and has insufficient sick leave.

The Grant opportunity will be available for claiming for periods after 1 April 2023 and will reimburse sick leave expenses incurred up to 31 December 2023. Eligible providers will have until 16 February 2024 to submit a claim for payments.
The Grant will be paid to Australian Government funded aged care providers, not individual workers, with the expectation that providers have already paid the staff their sick leave and then use this as an opportunity to seek reimbursement.

Grants will be paid to aged care providers who are able to demonstrate they paid sick leave to their directly employed permanent and casual staff who have insufficient sick leave, rather than payments direct to individuals. Evidence of the payment of sick leave balances for the period of time being claimed and employment status will be required.

There is no maximum grant amount to an individual employer, but grants cannot exceed the amount of available funds. The amount of Aged Care Worker COVID-19 Leave Payment (COVID-19 Leave Payment) that is payable is determined by the number of hours each eligible person would have worked per week during their period of paid sick leave.