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Up to 300,000 people who receive pandemic unemployment payment are scheduled to receive arrears due next week.
The Christmas bonus will be paid out on December 8 to PUP recipients who have earned the benefits for at least 17 weeks since it was launched and are still in the program for the week of December 3.
The Joint Committee for Social Protection of the Oireachtas heard that the Christmas bonus will cost around 94 million euros.
Teresa Leonard, undersecretary of the Department of Social Protection, admitted that some cases progressed more slowly than others.
It said this was due to complexity and inadequate or inaccurate information.
Committee chair Denis Naughten emphasized the importance of payments being made before the end of 2020, otherwise people could pay taxes on the payment in tax year 2021, while in 2020 they will have unused tax credits. .
Teresa Leonard added that the requirement to genuinely look for work was a rule of the PUP program.
She said: “Genuinely looking for work is the rule, but in this environment we are not applying it as religiously as we normally would, but there is a rule and it is applicable to the PUP scheme.”
According to her, the department is under pressure in terms of resources.
Leonard added that at this time no sanctions or reviews were being applied.
Department of Social Protection Undersecretary Ronan Hession said the department was taking a “pragmatic” approach during the current pandemic.
He added that he did not think it was a problem if people were not looking for work when their employment sector was closed.
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