CSO CSO

OVER ONE MILLION people received income support from the State in June, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

A total of 438,933 people were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) last month, down from 543,164 in May.

A further 382,018 people were in receipt of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) in June, down from 451,652 the previous month.

A total of 1,002,470 people were either on the Live Register or received the PUP or the TWSS last month.

The CSO noted that this number is not the total of the three schemes, as there is some overlap between them due to the different frequency of the payments, and the fact that some people who are included on the live register but not receiving a payment might be in receipt of of one of the other schemes.

Gender and age breakdown 

Of the 438,933 people in receipt of the PUP for the last week of June, 225,095 (51.3%) were men and 213,838 (48.7%) were women; 96,023 (21.9%) were under 25 years of age, while 342,910 (78.1%) were 25 years or older.

Of the 382,018 people in receipt of the TWSS at the end of last month, 223,399 (58.5%) were men and 158,619 (41.5%) were women; 47,838 (12.5%) were under 25 years, while 334,180 (87.5%) were 25 or older.

Speaking about the findings, Catalina Gonzalez, a statistician at the CSO, noted that the emergency unemployment payments introduced in response to the Covid-19 pandemic are “not captured in the traditional methodology of the Live Register” as this relates to the number of claimants in receipt of Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Assistance.

“Furthermore, Covid-19 payments are currently viewed as short-term in nature, with an expectation that those in receipt of such payments may return to work or may subsequently be considered for Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Assistance.”

The unadjusted Live Register total for June 2020 is 220,871 people.

“When seasonal effects are taken into account, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for June 2020 was 213,700 which was a decrease of 14,200 from May 2020,” Gonzalez said.