THE NUMBER OF people in the State receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has risen by more than 23,000.

The Department of Social Protection confirmed this morning that 228,858 people are now in receipt of the welfare payment, up from 205,593 people last week.

The value of payments issued today totalled €61.4 million, a rise of €6.2 million over the last seven days.

It follows the implementation of Level 3 measures in 24 counties at midnight on Tuesday last week. All counties are currently expected to be at Level 3 until midnight on 27 October.

There were increases in the number of claimants in all counties, with sharp rises in Cork, Galway and Kerry.

The number of people claiming the PUP also increased across all age groups, with the under 25 age group having both the highest total (54,999) and biggest increase (10,275) in claimants in the last seven days.

The 25-34 year-old age group makes up the second-highest number of claimants (52,780), followed by the 35-44 age group (49,554), the 45-54 age group (40,099) and those aged over 55 (31,426).

The sector with the highest number of people receiving a PUP payment this week is Accommodation and Food Services, with 69,535 claimants – a rise of around 18,000 in the last week.

It is followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade (30,500 claimants) and Administrative and Support Service activities (22,640 claimants).

The figures are in addition to the 211,492 people who were reported on the Live Register at the end of September. A further 4,931 people also closed their PUP claims last week.