First and second versions of NOW scheme undergo revision

The Social Affairs and Employment Minister has implemented a change to the first and second versions of the NOW (Temporary Emergency Bridging Measures for Sustained Employment) scheme (i.e. NOW‑1 and NOW‑2) by bolting on a recovery option aimed at businesses that form part of a group of companies. The timing of compliance for such group companies with the terms and conditions for determination of the subsidy at operating company level has now been deferred until the moment the relevant application is actually made. The conditions in question had been known to preclude businesses from applying at operating company rather than corporate (group) level, the recent past having witnessed several instances of businesses inadvertently failing to realise when filing their application that they actually formed part of a greater entity and as such were banned off their own bat from participating in the subsidy scheme.

The restriction as per the NOW‑1 and NOW‑2 schemes to the effect that the filing of an application for having the subsidy determined at operating company level was contingent on the NOW application having been made on or after the fifth of May 2020 no longer forms part of the NOW‑3 scheme.

Dutch version: Aanpassing NOW-1 en NOW-2