Eligibility for the RSP was based on whether you were carrying on a business or organisation that met the criteria to apply. Eligibility was not based on employee numbers.
However, the number of employees does matter when working out the RSP amount you could get.
When you work out how much RSP you might get, a person is your employee if both of the following are met at the time you applied.
- The person is your employee and not, for example, an independent contractor.
- They 'regularly work' for you. In other words they were actively involved in the business day-to-day.
The number of hours an employee regularly worked for you helped you work out whether to claim them as a:
- full-time equivalent worker (20+ hours a week) or
- part-time equivalent worker (up to 20 hours a week).
Below are some examples of how these RSP terms and conditions actually applied
An applicant will still be able to claim for an employee even if that employee is on leave at the time the application is made (for example, on sick leave, annual leave, or parental leave). The applicant should, in such circumstances, claim for the employee on the basis of the hours per week that the employee regularly works for the applicant when they are not on leave. For example, if the employee regularly works 20+ hours per week (when they are not on leave) they can be claimed as a full-time equivalent worker even if they may be on leave at the time that the application is made.
An applicant will still be able to claim for an employee even if the employee is on ACC at the time that the application is made. The applicant should, in such circumstances, claim for the employee on the basis of the hours per week that the employee regularly works for the applicant when they are not on ACC. For example, if the employee regularly works 20+ hours per week (when they are not on ACC) they can be claimed as a full-time equivalent worker.
A self-employed applicant (that is, an applicant that works as a sole trader for themselves) is able to claim for themselves as employee.
An applicant that is a company will be able to claim those shareholder-employees that regularly work for the applicant (that is, those shareholder-employees that are actively involved in the day-to-day business) as being employees for RSP calculation purposes, whether or not the company has paid the shareholder-employee a salary in a particular year. For example, the applicant may be in a growth stage and they may not have yet paid the shareholder-employee a salary if they're retaining capital within the company).
An applicant that is a not-for-profit will often have volunteers, as opposed to employees. However, such an applicant is able to claim for the person making the application on its behalf as an employee, provided that the person regularly works for the applicant. That is, they are actively involved in the day-to-day business.
An applicant that is a member of a commonly owned group will be able to claim those persons that regularly work for them as being employees (for RSP calculation purposes). This is the case even if the person is legally employed by another member of the group.
Please see the guidance on our Eligibility page for the circumstances when a member of a commonly owned group can claim a person as an employee for the purposes of the RSP calculation (and also the circumstances when such an employee will be a full-time equivalent employee on the one hand or a part-time equivalent employee on the other hand).