Pandemic unemployment payment tops €90m for Wexford recipients

AROUND €90m in €350 Covid payments was paid out to County Wexford people over the past four months.

Recent weeks have seen the number of people coming off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) drop, 2,300 having closed it the previous week.

Having had the third most people nationally per head of population on the payment in May, Co Wexford has now fallen to 11th in the national table.

Nationally the number of people on the payment has dropped by 42 per cent since the peak of May 5, while around 9,000 people are in receipt of Social Welfare payments in Co Wexford.

The first Covid-19 related payments were in customer’s bank accounts on Tuesday, March 24. Before March 24 the rate of payment was 203, prior to it being increased to 350. By April 6 there were 17,600

Wexford residents in receipt of the Covid-19 payment and by April 14 that figure had risen to 18,400, which swelled to 20,100 a week later and to 20,200 by April 28. According to the CSO, 8,862 Co Wexford people were in receipt of Social Welfare payments in March.

Nationally 591,000 people were in receipt of the Covid-19 payment on April 28, 337,000 of whom were male and 254,000 female.

The number of people claiming Covid 19 Illness Benefit here rose from 1,100 to 1,300 between April 21 and April 28.

The number of 18-25 year olds on PUP stood at 2,706 on July 5, a week in which 12,751 Co Wexford people were availing of the payment.

The high concentration of young adults – many of whom would be employed in summer jobs or away working in America on J1 Visas, has been highlighted as a concern by the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI).

The body - which represents organisations working with over 380,000 young people nationwide – has called on the government to bring forward a package of measures to support young jobseekers with a €191m investment to address the high levels of youth unemployment in the July Jobs Initiative to be announced this week.

‘ The number of young people on the PUP since the peak in early May has declined by over 32,000. This is very welcome, and we hope it continues to decline further. However, the reality is that even if half the current number on the payment exit, that would still leave 45,000 young people out of work. With 2,706 young people under 25 in County Wexford in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), and at a time when we have 45.4 per cent youth unemployment and over 140,000 young people out of work, it is vital that the July Jobs Initiative focuses heavily on the needs of young jobseekers,’ James Doorley, NYCI Deputy Director, said.