Special Group repays wage-aid

AUCKLAND, Today: Special Group NZ has agreed to repay its $ 203,800 Covid-19 wage supplement after a faster-than-expected recover, according to Herald Premium reporter Damien Venuto (scroll down for the link).

The cash was originally received for 29 fulltime employees earlier this year.

Managing partner Michael Redwood said the agency reached an agreement with the Ministry of Social Development to pay back the subsidy over a number of instalments.

“We definitely met the requirements to apply for wage subsidy at the time.”

“We definitely met the requirements to apply for wage subsidy at the time,” Redwood told Venuto.

“The money from that helped us navigate our way through the early lockdown and keep our changes at an absolute minimum.”

Venuto says Special Group “is so far the only New Zealand ad agency to publicly agree to pay back the wage subsidy and it’s unclear whether others will follow suit”.

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