Some PUP recipients should start looking for work - Humphreys

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has confirmed that some people in receipt of Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) should start looking for work as they might not be able to return to their former job.

She defended the controversial measure to carry out checks on travellers at airports to see if they were in receipt of the PUP.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Ms Humphreys defended the controversial measure to carry out checks on travellers at airports to see if they were in receipt of the PUP.

She said public servants who ignore the Government's advice to avoid all non-essential foreign travel will not be paid their salaries for any 14-day period of quarantine on their return to Ireland.

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The Minister said: “If any of those [public servants] chose to travel abroad, they will not be paid for the two-week quarantine period when they return. Equally there’s many private companies have also told their staff that if they choose to go abroad, they will not be paid for that period that they have to quarantine when they come home. So we’re not trying to pick on anyone here. We’re doing what is right by the country to protect our people.”

Ms Humphreys confirmed that the Government had temporarily suspended the flexibility of jobseker payments’ recipients getting their usual payments while abroad because “we are not in normal circumstances.”

Under normal circumstances social welfare recipients on jobseekers’ payments are allowed to take a two-week holiday without any impact on their regular payments.

The Minister said the public health advice in relation to foreign travel was “very clear” with all non-essential journeys abroad to be avoided.

Ms Humphreys reassured any social welfare claimants who had to travel for health reasons, family bereavements or other essential matters, that they would not suffer any deductions to their normal payments.

Ms Humphreys, said on Monday that the country’s 330,000 public servants would face a similar sanction to people in receipt of the PUP who failed to following the guidelines on travel outside Ireland.

Crucial stage

Ms Humphreys said the country was at a crucial stage in dealing with coronavirus.

“The Irish people have sacrificed so much and nobody wants to see us go back,” she remarked.

The Minister said the reduction in the number of people claiming the PUP, which has fallen from a peak of around 600,000 on May 5 to 286,900 last week, was “very encouraging”.

She welcomed the fact that the biggest reduction in recent weeks were among those aged under 25.

“That’s particularly good news because part of the Government’s focus is on getting our young people back to work,” said Ms Humphreys.

The latest figures from the Department of Social Protection show there was a decrease of 26,900 people receiving the payment last week.

There has been a 52 per cent drop in the number of people in receipt of the payment since May 5th, when 598,000 people were receiving the PUP.

In addition to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, an estimated 400,000 people working for about 68,400 employers are having their pay supported by the Government’s separate Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.

A further 220,900 people were on the live register at the end of June.

Ms Humphreys said “it is very encouraging to see that the numbers of people claiming the Pandemic Unemployment Payment are down in every county”.

“It is very promising to see that the numbers for Dublin have fallen below 100,000 this week at 97,800, which compares to the 174,200 when the figure was at its peak on May 5th,” she said.

The department said this was the fourth week of operation of the Government’s new two-tiered payment structure for people receiving the pandemic unemployment payment.

It said the majority of people – 208,900 – would continue to receive the original €350 rate of payment which is 17,400 fewer than last week.

It said 78,000 people will receive the lower €203 rate of payment this week which was 9,500 fewer than last week.

Under the revised payment arrangements those whose average weekly earnings in 2019 or January and February 2020 were less than €200 gross receive a pandemic unemployment payment of €203.

The department said about three quarters of claimants would continue to receive the original €350 benefit.