MORE THAN 420,773 people received the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week.

Payments worth a total of €125.4 million were paid to people in receipt of the PUP today. 

Separately, some 90,346 people will receive an arrears payment of PUP today that in total amounts to over €49 million. 

Approximately 30,000 of these are no longer in receipt of the PUP and the arrears payments will be issued to the nominated financial institutions today. 

Anyone expecting an arrears payment should check their bank account or check with their post office where they had been collecting their weekly payment. 

Dublin is the county with the highest number of people who are receiving the PUP this week at 135,295. It is followed by Cork (42,003) and Galway (22,733).

The sector with the highest number of people receiving the PUP this week is accommodation and food service activities (103,271), followed by wholesale and retail trade (67,832) and construction (48,933).

The construction sector has seen the largest decrease in the number of people receiving the PUP this week with 1,236 fewer people receiving the payment compared to last week.

Some 48% of those in receipt of PUP are receiving the maximum rate of €350 this week.

The past seven days saw 18,827 people close their PUP claims, with 16,793 of these stating that they were doing so because they are returning to work. 

Dublin had the greatest number of people closing their claims to return to work (3,800), followed by Cork (2,102) and Galway (901) and Meath (901).

“The efforts of the Irish people in suppressing this virus are having a really positive impact,” Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said. 

“We are again this week seeing a welcome reduction in Covid-19 cases, in hospitalisations and in ICU admissions,” Humphreys said. 

“If we continue to make this kind of progress, we will then be well-placed to consider a further easing of restrictions into May and June. These decisions will be considered closely by Cabinet next week.”