SHEEHAN CALLS FOR €1,000 PAYMENT AND TAX RELIEF FOR WORKERS
A €1,000 payment should be made to everyone working during the current health crisis, according to Wexford County Council chairman Cllr Michael Sheehan, who said many people made unemployed over recent weeks are making out better than when they were working.
Cllr Sheehan wrote to finance minister Pascal Donohoe last week requesting that the levies and taxation of workers during the Covid-19 crisis availing of the Wage Subsidy Scheme be either credited or written off.
In his letter he wrote: ‘Many workers who are working through this crisis are already on reduced wages and need assurance that the taxes on the scheme, while not applied to their weekly wage, is not accumulated onto their annual wage packet. This would leave PAYE workers who are in the scheme having a huge tax bill at the end of the year with no means of payment. This is wrong and assuming it is an oversight, I know you will fix it.’
Cllr Sheehan said there are 18,000 extra people unemployed in Co Wexford as a result of coronavirus restrictions.
He said the Government were right to provide a Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment to people, adding that some have made out very well.
‘ They were right because they needed to put money quickly into all of these homes. Some people were only working a couple of hours a week and now they are getting a €350 payment. It’s unfair on those who are working who got paid €350 or more before and now are getting €350. It’s going to be very difficult to get people to move from Social Welfare at €350 back into employment for lower wages.’
He said the Covid payment will last 12 weeks and he does not see it being extended.
‘By the time the 12 weeks are up the Department of Social Protection will have vetted everyone and people will go back on the old Social Welfare rate. That is why they are telling people to apply for the Covid Payment and the Jobseekers’ Allowance. You have cases where there are people who were making €90 a week and now they’re in receipt of €350. There are also a lot of people out there getting double Social Welfare payments.’
He said some of these people are getting over
€700 a week in payments. ‘ That’s what you get if you’re earning €60,000 or €62,000 a year.’
Widows and widowers aged over 66 who were working are not entitled to the Covid Payment which Cllr Sheehan described as outright discrimination,
He said it is essential that the Government keeps the economy going so that people will shop, go out to eat and spend money in their local communities when restrictions are lifted.
Calling for a €1,000 tax free payment for all workers who are working throughout the health crisis, Cllr Sheehan said: ‘I think they should look at putting €1,000 in people’s pockets tax free. That will encourage people to spend. The people who lost their job have their own problems but they also have €350 a week.’