[ad_1]
UP TO 286,000 recipients of the pandemic unemployment payment have paid arrears owed this week.
The arrears owed amount to 129.2 million euros. Those who must receive payment will receive a notification in their MyWelfare account.
The undersecretary of the Department of Social Protection, Teresa Leonard, told an Oireachtas committee last week that some cases were progressing more slowly, due to their complexity and also to inadequate or inaccurate information provided.
Although most claims were paid within a week, due to the large number of
claims, an initial time delay in initiating payments in some cases, the department has said.
During the month of March, the Department of Social Protection received and processed PUP claims equal to a three-year jobseeker claim load.
Almost 59,000 people were paid in the plan’s first week, increasing to 283,000 people the following week and more than 507,000 people in the plan’s third week.
The focus was on putting claims in payment as quickly as possible “and it was not possible to generate late payments at that time,” the department said.
Since the PUP’s introduction in March, some 820,000 people have requested payment.
In some cases, they have done so repeatedly while in and out of work or when their employer was under the Temporary Income Wage Subsidy Scheme.
This resulted in more than 1.4 million applications being examined to determine if arrears were owed, and the department identified a few weeks in which people were not paid.
the PUP and assessed the arrears.
Additionally, the department examined possible overpayments due to overlaps with the Temporary Income Wage Subsidy Plan or other welfare payments, such as job applicants or sickness benefit.
Some payments will be paid later
While the vast majority of arrears cases (more than 280,000) are paid today, there are a smaller number of cases (less than 10,000) where the department is
continue to review the records and arrears that may be owed in these cases will be paid later this month.
Arrears were paid today ahead of the € 390 million Christmas bond payment next week to more than 1.6 million social assistance recipients, including approximately 311,270 PUP recipients.
Between the PUP arrears and the Christmas Bonus, payments of more than 500 million euros are being made.
Speaking about payments, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said:
This will be of great benefit to the local economy and I encourage people to
choose buy local.
Payments will be paid directly through the Post Office or into the designated bank accounts of these 286,000 people who are in arrears today.
The late payment that is paid to current PUP recipients will be paid as a separate payment to your account today. Meanwhile, for customers who choose to collect their PUP payment at their local post office, their late payments will also be available to collect there.
This week, 351,400 receive Pandemic Unemployment Pay, a slight reduction from last week.
The sector with the highest number of people covered by the PUP is accommodation and catering activities, which accounts for 102,321, followed by wholesale and retail trade, which stands at 56,893.
Other sectors such as hairdressers and beauty salons account for 31,361 payments.
These figures are in addition to the 203,172 people who were reported in the Live Register at the end of October.
No news is bad news
Support the magazine
your contributions help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you
Support us now
Drop in claims
“This week’s pandemic unemployment pay figures show a stabilization of new claims with some 4,500 people closing their claim last week when they returned to work.
“The total number of claimants has also decreased slightly. This is expected to be followed by a much more significant drop next week as a result of some
reopening sectors of the economy, ”said Humphreys.
“While all these signs are positive, this is not the time to lower our guard,” he added.
“As we make arrangements for Christmas, I ask everyone to continue to adhere to public health guidelines to further suppress the virus.
“Let us also remember the front-line health workers who will spend Christmas in our hospitals caring for people who have contracted the virus.
“We owe it to them, who have been on the front lines since the beginning of the pandemic, to make a special effort to act responsibly in the coming weeks,” he said.
In the past seven days, some 6,800 people closed their PUP claim, and more than 4,500 claimed they were doing so because they are returning to work. Many more people are expected to return to work in the next week.
The minister said she knows that some people are concerned that if they close their PUP claim they will not be able to reopen the claim if their workplace closes again in January.
He assured workers that this is not the case, and that the PUP will be open until March so that people who have the opportunity to return to work can do so with the peace of mind that they can still access the PUP again if they need it.
[ad_2]