Today the Government issued payments valued at €72.2 million to 232,400 people, representing a 30,100 decrease on the 262,500 people who received the PUP last week.
This is a 61 per cent drop on the 598,000 paid at its peak on May 5th.
In the past seven days, 9,700 people have closed their claim for a Pandemic Unemployment Payment. Meanwhile, 4,300 will be receiving their final payment tomorrow.
The top three sectors in which employees are returning to work this week are accommodation and food services; wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; and construction. The largest cohort returning to work is in the under 25 age group.
Eligibility
In the past few weeks, the Department of Social Protection contacted 390,000 people who were receiving the PUP, asking them to confirm their eligibility to continue to receive the payment as part of standard practice for people receiving unemployment payments.
Notifications were issued directly to PUP recipients via email, SMS and their MyWelfare account informing them of their need to confirm their continued eligibility, along with a large scale advertising campaign on national, local and social media.
The vast majority of people did confirm their eligibility, however, at the beginning of last week there were approximately 29,000 individuals who had not confirmed their continued eligibility despite having received personal notifications.
Just over 1,000 of these did confirm their continued eligibility by the deadline on Friday, August 14th and will continue to receive their payment. The remainder will not receive a payment tomorrow as their PUP claim remains closed.
Anybody who is eligible but missed the deadline can reapply online.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said: “Our resources are not unlimited and we need to ensure that this money goes to the people and families who genuinely need it.
“My Department has made every effort to contact every person receiving the payment in recent weeks in order to confirm their continued eligibility. The vast, vast majority of people responded and will continue to receive their payment as normal.
"I want to stress if there were extenuating circumstances which prevented any person from responding to confirm their eligibility, all they need to do is re-apply online to have their payment restored. They can also contact the Department's PUP Helpline at 1890 800 024 or their own local Intreo Centre if they need assistance."
