50,000 businesses waiting for NSW COVID-19 support grants

“We’ve never had this level of demand before and when we were setting up this grant program in many ways we were flying and building the plane at the same time,” he said.

The government has received 260,000 grant applications and about 200,000 have been approved or paid.

“Of the 60,000-odd grants remaining, about 10,000 we are waiting on customers or businesses to give us more information,” Mr Dominello said.

“Of the 50,000 then remaining, we still have about 15,000 that are more than two weeks old. We’ve got 580 assessors working specifically to make sure we clear that backlog of 15,000.”

He said the average time from grant application to payment was seven-and-a-half days, but some businesses had been waiting for weeks to receive anything.

Murray River Shire's Cr Tom Weyrich is one business owner waiting to hear back on a claim he submitted on July 31.

He said he received an email two weeks ago saying they would get to his application within seven days, but hadn’t heard anything since.

“It’s simply ridiculous and it’s all very well to say these applications are in progress but by the time it’s anywhere near people getting any money, there’ll be no-one left,” he said.

Cr Weyrich has two small businesses in Mathoura and one in Moama all under the same ABN, meaning he is only entitled to make one claim.

“I have to spread whatever they give me over three businesses and that’s not going to be enough,” he said.

“I’m either going to have to start selling off assets or I’m going to close something. There’s so much uncertainty around COVID-19 and the situation’s going from bad to worse.

“From a small business perspective, it’s disastrous and the NSW Government should be ashamed of themselves.

“In this part of the world, we don’t matter.”

More local news

Echuca pharmacies join COVID-19 vaccine rollout

Parks, pubs and port go from packed to empty in two hours

Township facility plans a ‘good governance model'