More time to finalise the NOW scheme

Entrepreneurs who have received a grant under the first tranche of the Emergency Measure to Safeguard Jobs (NOW-1) will receive from Minister Koolmees more time to submit their application for the grant to be finalised.

Approval of grant

These business owners applied for NOW-1 between 6 April 2020 and 5 June 2020. As a result, they received an advance payment of 80% of the expected grant amount.

The grant must then be finalised. The business owner must submit the application for this themselves. If they fail to do so, the grant will be set at zero.

Service desk open

The application portal for NOW-1 has been open since 7 October 2020. Applications had to be submitted within 24 weeks, meaning the deadline was 23 March 2021. Business owners who were required to submit an auditor’s report were given more time: 38 weeks (deadline: 29 June 2021).

At the request of the professional body for accountants (the NBA), these deadlines have been extended. In both cases, the application for the NOW-1 scheme must by 31 October 2021 at the latest have been submitted to the UWV.

It goes without saying that business owners who are expecting an additional NOW-1 grant should submit their application as soon as possible. The business owners – an estimated 60% – who are required to repay the grant can now delay doing so for a little longer.

Other application periods

The deadlines are also changing for the other tranches (NOW-2/-3/-4/-5). Koolmees’s letter to Parliament contains the following schematic overview:

For NOW-2, the application window will open earlier: 15 March 2021 Instead of 15 April 2021, the helpdesk will be unavailable for a short while due to scheduled maintenance in mid-April.