State Member for Wallsend, Ms Sonia Hornery MP, will today call on the Minister for Customer Service to fix the systems errors in the Service NSW Small Business Fees and Charges Rebate Program, after a number of local businesses were short paid last week.
Ms Hornery’s office fielded a number of calls and emails from business owners who had been underpaid by Service NSW.
Many of those businesses were relying on the money to pay bills and creditors and were left short after a glitch in the system.
When owners contacted Service NSW, they were told that the only solution was to refund the money back to Service NSW and then resubmit the claim.
Ms Hornery will call on the Minister to ensure that the system can meet demand and help those who need it most, and call for an apology to all businesses and persons who were caught up in this system error and make sure that swift payments of the short paid value are made a priority.
“Once again we have seen a failure in a system set up by the NSW Government,” Ms Hornery said.
“Last week it was the iVote system that failed and now it’s Service NSW once again.
“Local business owners who have struggled through droughts, floods and COVID are really doing it tough and many are living week to week.
“Rebates like these have a significant impact on the bottom line to many small business owners and when the money they are expecting doesn’t arrive, it means they are unable to pay their bills, their staff or themselves.
“Making business owners refund the money and then resubmit the claim will spell the end for some businesses.
“They have to find the time to do the application again, refund the money, and then will be forced to wait weeks before they will be paid the correct amount of money.
“The Government made the mistake, they need to own the mistake and fix it for the people concerned, rather than making it the problem for business owners to fix.
“The Minister should make these applications a priority and ensure businesses are paid within days, not weeks or months” said Ms Hornery.