Three hundred more workers in Co. Donegal have been laid-off due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The number of Donegal people on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has reached 12,360 this week.
The sector with the highest number of people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment is Accommodation and Food Service Activities (102,682) followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade (57,015) and Other Sectors e.g. hairdressers and beauty salons (31,048).
This week, the Department of Social Protection has issued payments valued at €103.8 million, up from €99 million last week, to 350,072 people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).
This week’s figures are in addition to the 203,172 people who were reported on the Live Register as of the end of October.
All Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payments issued will be in recipients’ bank accounts or at their local post office today, Tuesday, 17th November.
Earlier this month, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys secured approval at Cabinet to extend the 2020 earnings reference for employees to September 2020.
This means 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 January to September 2020.
As a result of this change, some 37,430 people receiving PUP this week will see an increase in their rate of payment. No one will have their weekly rate of payment reduced as a result of this re-assessment of their earnings.