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LAST UPDATE | 16 Mar 2020
THE GOVERNMENT HAS established a Pandemic Unemployment Payment to help people who have lost work because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The payment of €203 per week will be available, for a six-week period, to all employees and the self-employed who have been affected by the seizing up of economic activity.
The social welfare payment is an attempt to quickly deliver income security to the unemployed. People can get the payment by applying for the normal jobseeker’s payments within this six-week period.
People are being urged to download application forms online and apply via the post instead of visiting an Intreo centre, where social distancing rules will be applied and lines are expected to be long.
Those who have a Public Services Card can apply through the MyWelfare online portal, but it is not necessary to have the card to apply for the payment via the post.
The department also asked members of the public not to phone its offices in order to allow staff to focus on processing applications.
The government is asking employers to continue paying staff, at least at the rate of €203 per week, throughout the national emergency. Those that do so can apply for a refund of €203 per week from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
Employment Affairs and Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said the refund scheme will take some time to process but in the meantime banks will provide working capital finance in the form of overdrafts or short-term loans to cover costs.
“I want to reassure our clients that the Department will process all applications for income support as soon as possible,” minister Doherty said.
“The new payment will speed this process up and ensure that our customers receive a payment from the Department in as short a time as possible.
Payments will issue based on date of application, not date of processing, meaning that all payments will be back dated. We would ask customers to please keep checking your Bank Account as payment may issue in advance of us formally notifying you.
Public Services Card
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One this afternoon, Doherty said that 20,000 applications had been received on Friday – these payments are taking around 24-48 hours to process, so many should be processed by today.
Doherty stressed that you can use a Public Services Card to apply online, but that you don’t need a card to apply for the payment. Instead, you can download the form and send it via post.
“We will get people on a payment as quickly as possible in the coming days,” she said.
Doherty said that employers who close their doors but keep paying staff a minimum of €203 per week will be reimbursed by the government in the coming weeks. She said that more detail will be provided on the exact refund mechanism by Wednesday.
“I would expect it wouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks,” she said, for employers to get paid.
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Wait for 6 months for a test then some instructor fails you the day of the test because he’s in bad form or had an argument with the missus that morning. Then wait another 6 months to repeat
@barry williams: instructors don’t test you.
@William Ryan: testers/instructors whatever they call themselves. I’m sure you know what I mean
@barry williams: that’s simply untrue. You fail because you didn’t drive well enough to pass. The least we can do before allowing people.to drive is test them properly. Testers have clear criteria and scoring mechanism and share the scores. Its a fair test of ability. The waiting times are a disgrace though. Government paying lip service to road safety when they do nothing about ensuring more people are tested to prove they can drive safely and qualified.
With recent massive price rises for tests and drivers licences, it all seems to have gotten worse. One thing I notice in Ireland is the more you pay for public services, the worse the service is.
Massive pay cuts to managers in the RSA and Dept of Transport until all waiting lists are cut to the minimum. Same for HSE. Hit incompetency in the pocket, the only way to sort out the shambles of it all.
@Lone Hurler: DOGE
Ah sure the Labour party will sort it out
@Eddienowy Byrne: yes. A brilliant counter intuitive move: increase the waiting lists with further tests. And then the waiting lists will shrink immediately. Why not put more people in hospital while we are at it.
@Alan:
Pity no one actually read what the Labour Party proposed:
1. Sort out the waiting lists for the PRACTICAL driver test; and then
2. Look at having people resit a THEORY test at renewal.
There are no waiting lists for the theory test
@NiallM: this is The Journal comments section, there is no reading, just venting
@NiallM: what are their proposals to sort out waiting lists?
Does anything in this country work properly?
@Tony Murphy: your phone?
If they didnt have so many “quota fails” on a daily basis then the waiting list wouldnt be as long, i wonder how many of them 13,500 are waiting to repeat their test, failed me during covid when insurance companies werent sending out discs and i didnt have colour ink in my printer so no green strip on the disc, no test…its like the nct they quota fail to make more money
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it split over 3 years: I find it hard to believe that your insurance company did not post you originals.
They are giving out licenses Like confetti at a wedding.
@Phillip Smyth: high failure rates result in increased waiting list thus making your statement nonsensical.
@William Ryan: so many applications they cannot keep up, still giving out many applications that pass in huge amounts, and loads of non passing,in huge amounts, thus hence, many like confetti. Capice.
@Phillip Smyth: your confetti metaphor does not work.
Good, leave them their, road network is over capacity anyway. Years of neglect in the sector
@Thesaltyurchin: “young people shouldn’t be allowed to drive because it will inconvenience my ability to drive”
why don’t the ask for their test to be switched to another center? I did that when there was a backlog in my area, I did a practice with my driiving instructor on the new area before the test and flew through it.
Drive safely, wear a condom.
Obviously wages in these test centres for the average workers are garbage if so short staffed with big lists and needing temp driving testers
@Dan The Man: testers start on around 35k I think.
What percentage of people pass their test the first time, are many on this list resits?
If so then the instruction process needs to be looked at?
have your say