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File photo. Minister Heather Humphreys. Julien Behal Photography
PUP
Over 340,000 receive Pandemic Unemployment Payment this week as total spend on scheme tops €4 billion
The minister for social protection said the rise in the number of PUP recipients was expected given the Level 5 restrictions in place.
6.52pm, 9 Nov 2020
23.7k
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THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection has issued payments of €99 million to 342,500 recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week.
This week’s spend – up from €95.5 million last week – brings the spending on PUP to date to €4 billion.
The number of recipients on the scheme has increased by 12,500 in the past week and Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said that “the increase was anticipated and reflects the impact of moving to Level 5 restrictions”.
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The sector with the highest number of people receiving a PUP this week is accommodation and food service activities with 100,994 recipients.
This is followed by wholesale and retail trade (55,516 recipients) and other sectors such as hairdressers and beauty salons (30,141).
When the government introduced Level 5 restrictions, which included the closure of pubs, restaurants and non-essential retail outlets, it reinstated the highest rate of the PUP.
This meant that those with gross weekly earnings of €400 or more receive a rate of €350 a week.
Minister Humphreys said she was aware that people were “making huge sacrifices” as they continue to heed the public health advice.
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She added: “But the fall in the number of Covid-19 cases in recent days is encouraging and gives cause for optimism ahead of the upcoming Christmas period. Let’s all keep going together. We brought this virus under control before. It is within our gift to do so again.”
In a statement this evening, the department also said that regulations are currently being finalised that will extend the 2020 earnings reference period for employees to September 2020.
The department said: “This will mean that people who only commenced employment after February 2020 but have now been laid-off due to increased restrictions can have their payment rate fixed by reference to their earnings in the period March to September 2020.
“The regulations will also provide that people who may have been in employment before February 2020 but whose earnings have reduced in the period since February can still have their PUP payment rate set by reference to their earlier, higher, earnings.”
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@SC: I was just thinking something like that. Surely they get some of that money back through taxes as people are spending it food, rent etc. Plus it’s keeping some people in their jobs lessening money needed to be paid out. I wonder are all these things taken into account.
If only our government could find money for health care investment that would last into the future instead 10s of billions in Debt with nothing to show for it.
@Joeohah: fair point, we should remember all of this the next time at the ballot box. The government has stayed the middle course and got lucky in a couple of occasions but their handling of the pandemic has been shocking overall Imoa.
It’s money well spent. Those who lost their jobs or got laid off, their livelihoods, depend on it, they at least weren’t left out and have a guarantee that they will be able to pay rent and put food on the table.
@Dominik Michalik: Surely a better alternative would have been to invest that money in bigger hospital capacity instead of level 5 restrictions. The restrictions were put in place after all to slow down the spread so hospitals don’t get overwhelmed.
Self-employed people that previously came off the PUP are now being told when they re-apply that they are ineligible. Four month delay on appeals, some people will be 20 weeks without an income
A lot of hard working people who’s morgage or paying high rent just to survive depends on this payment. Sadly there properly a catch to this through extra taxes. Then there’s those people who never worked a day in there life has no finacial stress and has a tax free house over there heads. The more you do in this country the more tax you pay the less you seem to be rewarded.
@Paul Power: 10% of your income for rent is nothing, workers are playing between 30% -60% of their income on rent! You know what they are talking about!
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