PANDEMIC leave payments will remain for as long as all the states and territories have mandatory isolation requirements in place.
National Cabinet met virtually on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and received an update from Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly.
First Ministers agreed to extend the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment (PLDP) at current rates beyond September 30.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the payment would remain available for as long as mandatory isolation periods are applied by all states and territories.
Strict limits will be imposed on how many times you can claim the $540 pandemic leave payment after it emerged that some workers claimed to have contracted COVID four times or more to secure the cash.
First Ministers agreed to cap the maximum number of PLDP claims an individual can make in a six-month period to three.
However, the Prime Minister left the door open to axing the payment – which is designed to offer support to workers who don’t have access to sick leave – at a future meeting.
“We remain of the view that if people are sick, whether from COVID or from other health issues, they should not be at work and that is important,” Mr Albanese said.
“We will have a discussion about future arrangements on September 30 when the national cabinet will meet in person.”
Mr Albanese also revealed that there was some evidence that Services Australia had identified fraudulent claims.
“Since July 20, 2022, 2.6 per cent of all claims received triggered real-time fraud checks in the system and of those, more than 50 per cent were subsequently rejected and some 15 per cent were subsequently withdrawn by the claimant,’” he said.
“Services Australia data indicates also that over the six months to the 30 June 2000 – 2022, claims made by individuals who claimed more than once, of these, about 13 per cent were claimed four or more times, that is a claim every 6.5 weeks or more.
