1,100 less people in Donegal are claiming Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment this week as more businesses reopen.
20,200 Donegal workers remain on the emergency scheme, with payments due to be in recipients’ bank accounts or at their local post office today.
1,700 people in the county left the scheme on the week of 26th May, following the May 18th Phase One reopenings.
Today, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection issued Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payments valued at €190.2m to 543,200 people nationwide. This is a reduction of 36,200 on the number of people paid at the same point last week. Amongst the recipients are 28,400 who have now informed the Department that they are returning to work and 20,100 of these will be receiving their last payment this week.
1,100 people in Donegal are currently on Enhanced Illness Benefit. This scheme predominantly relates to applications in respect of people who have been advised by their GP to self-isolate together with a smaller number in respect of people who have been diagnosed with Covid-19.
As well as those on the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment, there are now over 57,800 employers in Ireland who have registered with the Revenue Commissioners for the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) with at least one subsidy being paid in respect of over 508,100 people under that scheme.
Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty today said:
“The peak demand for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has passed in parallel with the flattening of the Covid-19 curve and each week, if the current progress on the health front holds firm, we will see an incremental drop on the numbers in need of this assistance. However, not everybody will be getting back to work in the first phases of the reopening of our society and, as I confirmed in the Dáil last week, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment will extend beyond the original June end date.
“As we gradually move through all the phases of reopening our society, we do need to review the nature of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and how it fits into cross-Government plans to keep Ireland healthy and get the country working again. We are currently considering this and will soon bring forward proposals for some changes. Any future decisions will be based on our commitment that everyone who needs help will get the most appropriate assistance and also based on the ongoing progress we experience from the reopening of the economy.”
The main sectors in which people are returning to work this week, continue to be Construction with 9,900 workers back in work, Wholesale and Retail Trade, Repair of Motor vehicles and motorcycles, with 4,300 having returned to work, while 2,800 have returned to their jobs in the Manufacturing sector.
With the first phase of the Government’s Roadmap for the Reopening of Society and Business now in place and the gradual reopening of the economy, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is advising workers who are returning to work that they must close their claim for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).
In order to ensure that their claim is processed correctly, workers who will be returning to work must close their claim for the PUP payment on the actual date that they start back at work. Since Phase One of the Government’s Roadmap for the Reopening of Society and Business, some 64,000 employees are back in work.
The easiest way to close a claim for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment is online via www.mywelfare.ie. Any worker returning to work with an enquiry about closing their claim, can contact the Department’s dedicated income support helpline at 1890 800 024 (Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 5.00pm).
