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LAST UPDATE | 29 Jul 2020
THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection has said it has identified 85 cases where people had their Pandemic Unemployment Payment stopped (PUP) but may be entitled to it.
The department has said it will be contacting the individuals in question over the coming days.
The development comes after Minister Heather Humphreys said earlier today that people on the PUP or Jobseeker’s assistance can travel to countries on the Green List without losing their payments.
Humphreys told the Dáil today that her department could “have communicated more effectively” on the matter in recent days.
She said the vast majority (90%) of the 2,500 people who’ve had their payment stopped due to travel abroad were leaving the country permanently.
The minister said that some travelling abroad may have been unaware of the new criteria, and that her department was to review all cases where holidaymakers travelling abroad had their payment stripped.
In a statement this evening, the department said it had completed the review of those 2,500 cases:
This review has identified some 85 cases that have the potential to be entitled to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment for a holiday period. The department will be contacting the 85 individuals directly in the coming days to verify these cases.
Humphreys confirmed today that regulations will be signed to allow recipients of the PUP to travel to Green List countries.
These are the countries designated by the government where people can travel to and from without the advice to quarantine for 14 days afterwards.
For non-Green List countries, those in receipt of PUP or Jobseeker’s will be permitted to travel to them for essential reasons, but they must notify their local welfare office first.
The countries on the Green List are Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino.
The affair has proven to be yet another headache for the new government, with the move to remove the PUP for those travelling abroad heavily criticised in recent days.
Since 7 July, 104 cases of the PUP have been stopped after people in receipt of the payment were found to have travelled abroad for non-essential reasons.
Yesterday, the Free Legal Advice Centre (Flac) said there was no legal basis to remove or suspend PUP for those who holiday abroad.
Its chief executive Eilis Barry said: “While legislation may allow for this suspension in relation to Jobseekers Benefit, it does not go so far as to allow the Department sweeping powers to suspend or close other payments that people may receive – including Covid PUP.”
Minister Humphreys, however, did add today that her officials had advised her that “there was no provision to receive a payment while out of the country under any circumstances”.
With reporting from Christina Finn and Rónán Duffy
This is why its very important to not totally trust the EU. They dont even know what our interests are let alone protect them.
@Mjhint:
Thanks that’s very helpful, and in no way pointless.
Bet you miss trummp
What’s the point of you then if you are out of the loop…. clearly you are in the fringes and completely useless to us.
@London-Irish Senator: It was a rushed emergency policy that didn’t even go through consultation stage or debate within the Commission. Obviously she wasn’t informed.
@Tomo: Maybe so, but the decision was made by people who are clearly in the loop to make such a decision in the first place. She should be at the forefront of anything to do with Ireland/Brexit and the EU and should be ensuring she imposes her presence as the Irish Rep. If this situation is anything to go by, she needs to up her game.
@London-Irish Senator: if you’re so well informed and sure about your judgment that our commissioner is useless to us, it’s a shame you don’t have the integrity to put you name on your contribution. Another keyboard warrior!
@Chris Linehan: she’s the finance commissioner.
@London-Irish Senator: None of your business you live in Britain. As for your aspiration to have senate representation, I am sure there are many here who not want any persons living in Britain have a say in our affairs. There are plenty of memories of absentee and foreign politicians for us in Ireland from the 19th and early 20th century
@John Mulligan: Exactly, every decision made in the EU has financial implications. It’s exactly why she should be fully in the know about all branches of the commission and their decisions. It’s why it was huge that she got picked and we had someone at the top table of the commission especially during the Brexit transition. She’s not the agricultural commissioner but when decisions are made on the EU agricultural economy by the agricultural commissioner, she should be in the loop since those decisions financially effect the EU including Ireland.
@Chris Linehan: Commissioners are not Irish reps. They swear an oath to act independently of their own country when they take office. The regulation to control vaccine exports was done in a day and would not have been run by her as she is in financial services not trade.
@Chris Linehan: she is not Our commissioner.
She is the Finance Commissioner.
Your comment was clearly made by someone who doesnt understand how the Commission works.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself
@Liam Mernagh:
No member state has their OWN commissioner.
Ironic that you criticise others for being badly informed and then prove your own lack of understanding
@Ciaran O’Mara: Point taken about the trade/financial decisions but I find it hard to believe it was not a considered situation for weeks beforehand once the UK started delivering vaccines. Or perhaps the EU are equally adept at being unprepared like the UK were in the Brext negotiations.
@Trevor J Coonan: That she’s Europe’s Finance Commissioner and not Ireland’s is clear. To assume she doesn’t and shouldn’t have a deep interest in EU decisions which effect Ireland, despite her oath to serve the EU only, is naive at best.
@London-Irish Senator: you have no clue so quiet down, spreading falsehoods…she got emailed the legislation about 2 hrs before it was published, we no indication art 16 was included…it was a rush job gone wrong
@Chris Linehan: stop digging
The main point and key learning here is that she was NOT consulted. That tells you all you need to know about how the EU currently operates.
@RBUman1: in fairness, I wouldn’t expect evety commissioner to know the detail of the work of every other commissioner. I doubt the minister for agriculture here is fully up to speed on everything that happens in the department of justice.
How did this get passed her ? Not good enough.
@Eileen Doherty: read the article….she was not consulted…..how did that fact get passed you….Not Good enough
The EU bureaucracy was able to invoke article 16 without reference to Irish MEPs or commissioner, without reference to the Irish government, and without reference to the other party to the agreement – U.K. government and NI executive. The fact that they have the authority to act independently and didn’t feel the need to even consult on the matter tells you all you need to know about the EU and what they think of Ireland.
@Sara Davis: Independence from member states governments was the very reason member states governments voted to set up the European Commission in the first place. That isn’t what’s at issue here. What is, is that Ireland and the EU weren’t consulted. It was part of the rules surrounding article 16 that they should have been. So it isn’t the rules as such that were the problem, but that the rules were violated.
And even though the mistake was quickly rectified, I still think Ursula von der Leyen committed a sackable offence. But unfortunately she won’t be sacked over this.
@Mick Tobin: Oops, that Ireland and the *UK* weren’t consulted, that is…
@Sara Davis: the Commission didn’t invoke article 16, they proposed that it should be triggered. Within a few hours after realising their mistake, they withdrew the proposal.
2 weeks to late
The list of people who wouldn’t have let it happen is very long, and is not limited to Irish politicians. Barnier and the wider Brexit negotiating team is among the list.
Whats the point of commissioners then if things like this can be pushed through without consultation, why did it take this long for her to say this..
I lost any respect I ever had for McGuinness when she (along with her pals in Fidesz in Hungary) voted to allow migrants drown at sea,
the dup want the protocol scrapped at the same time as calling for it to be invoked hmmmmm
- “It is argued that it has effectively created a border between the Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain.”
Argued? It has. The only reason it’d be put this way is so Boris Johnson can continue to argue there isn’t a border.
She is a Commissioner who happens to be Irish.
No state has their own commissioner.
Very poor by the Journal
Big Phil wouldn’t have let it happen, wakey wakey Mairead
A month later we still dont know who did what when! Never mind it’ll never happen again… WHO envolked it in the first place?
have your say