THE NUMBER OF people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment stands at nearly 469,000 this week, a slight drop of 4,566 in the past seven days.

The number of people receiving the PUP remains close to half a million as the Department of Social Protection is set to issue payments worth a total of €140.34 million to 468,847 bank accounts tomorrow.

Almost 50% of those in receipt of PUP are receiving the maximum rate of €350 this week.

These figures are in addition to the 188,543 people who were on the Live Register at the end of January.

Dublin is the county with the highest number of people who are receiving PUP this week at 147,241.  Cork is second highest with 47,535 and Galway is third with 25,082.

Dublin also had the greatest number of people closing their claims to return to work in the past week (2,372), followed by Cork (992) and Kildare (493).

Overall, some 10,482 people closed their PUP claims in the last seven days, more than 9,000 of these stated that they were doing so because they are returning to work. 

The sector with the highest number of people receiving the payment this week is Accommodation and Food Service activities (110,216), followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade (74,589) and Construction (59,867). 

Construction is the sector that has seen the largest decrease, with 1,210 fewer people receiving the payment compared to the previous seven days. 

The Manufacturing sector saw the number of PUP recipients decrease from 26,618 last week to 25,862 this week.  This is followed by Wholesale and Retail sector, which has seen the number of PUP recipients decrease from 75,196 last week to 74,589 this week.

“The number of people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has decreased for a third consecutive week,” Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said.

“This reflects the fact that activity is continuing in essential industries. But it also reflects the ability of employers to find innovative ways to operate within the public health guidelines including through the use of remote working and online service delivery.

“It is really important that where possible, employees are facilitated in terms of working from home,” she added.