PUP to remain open for new applicants until end of year

THE Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) will be open to new applicants until the end of 2020, Protection Minister Heather Humphreys has said.

To date, over €3.5billion has been paid out under PUP to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.

As part of the July Jobs Stimulus, a decision was taken to close PUP for new entrants from September 17.

However, Ms Humphreys yesterday secured Cabinet approval to extend this date until the end of 2020. This means that anyone who loses their employment as a result of the pandemic after September 17 will be able to avail of the appropriate PUP rate.

It also means that anyone unfortunate enough to be laid off for a second time will be able to avail of PUP.

‘With the continuing uncertainty posed by Covid-19, I believe keeping PUP open is a fair and appropriate course of action at this time,’ she said.

Ms Humphreys has also secured Government approval to extend the waiver on waiting days for jobseeker payments until 2021. Ordinarily, when a person makes an application for a Jobseeker’s Benefit or Allowance, payment is not made for the first three days of unemployment, called ‘waiting days’. These waiting days will continue to be waived on applications for jobseeker’s payments until 2021.

This week, the Department of Social Protection issued payments valued at €65.5million to 209,941 people for the PUP.

This represents a drop of over 64% on the 598,000 people paid at the peak on May 5.