Over 21,000 get COVID payment across Kerry

MORE than 21,000 people in Kerry are now receiving emergency welfare payments due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Updated figures from the Department of Social Protection show that – as of Tuesday, April 21 – a total of 21,500 workers in Kerry have received the payment having been laid off suddenly as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown.

That equates to more than a third of Kerry’s roughly 55,000-strong workforce as recorded in the 2016 Census.

It also represents an increase of 1,900 on the figure provided for pandemic payments made the previous week on April 14.

The vast majority of those receiving the Pandemic payment are workers from the retail, hospitality and services sector, which typically accounts for about a quarter of Kerry’s entire workforce.

According to the Department a further 700 people in Kerry – an increase of 100 on the previous week – had received the €350 Covid Illness Benefit.

This payment – which is different to the Pandemic Payment – is made to people who have the virus or have been instructed to self isolate as they were in contact with a known case.

The cost of the Pandemic Payment and Covid Illness benefit in Kerry now stands at €7.7 million a week – up almost €1 million in seven days – with this expected to rise further in the coming weeks and months.

The figures don’t include workers supported through Revenue’s COVID-19 Wage Subsidy for employers – of whom there are several thousand in the county.