Seven thousand in Sligo claim Covid Unemployment Payment

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has issued payments to 533,000 people in respect of their application for the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

These payments are in addition to the 210,000 people on the Live Register and over 42,000 employers have now registered with the Revenue Commissioners for the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy scheme.

There are 7,000 people in Sligo in receipt of Pandemic Unemployment Payment (€350 weekly).The highest sector with people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment is accommodation and food service activities (115,500), followed by wholesale and retail trade (81,400) and construction (71,000).There are 200 people in Sligo receiving the Covid-19 enhanced Illness Benefit Payment (€350 weekly).

In total (since launch on the 16 th March, 2020), and excluding duplicate claims, the Department processed applications from 625,000 people for the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment or a jobseeker’s payment.

To date, over 40,000 people have contacted the Department to close their Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment. The majority of these requests are because employers are taking people back onto their payroll under the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme.

However, approximately 68,000 payments have been withheld for a variety of reasons. These include the people concerned who were still in employment, who had not been in employment prior to claiming the Covid-19 payment, a Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy was being paid in their name, who were not resident in the State or because they submitted incorrect details including invalid PPSNs and IBANs.

The Department is continuing to resolve any issues, such as invalid IBANS or PPSNs, with legitimate applications and is contacting the people concerned directly over the next few days. We wish to remind people to take care when submitting applications, to ensure that critical information such as dates of birth, PPSN and IBANs are entered correctly. An IBAN has 22 characters and people should take care that it is entered correctly. Any errors by individuals in submitting their incorrect IBAN or PPSN will cause their application to be rejected by the Department. There are now over 42,000 employers who have registered with the Revenue Commissioners for the Temporary Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS).

Workers whose employers have registered them on the scheme are not eligible to receive a pandemic unemployment payment. In addition workers who were in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment but who have now been registered by their employers on the TWSS are no longer eligible to receive a payment pandemic unemployment payment

The Department is aware that some workers may be incorrectly registered as part of the TWSS or may face difficulty in transitioning back from the pandemic unemployment payment to the employer payroll. Such a situation may arise, for example, because a worker has been registered in error by their employer, or because an employer having registered for the TWSS has since ceased operating their payroll, or, due to differences in the weekly payment pattern of the pandemic unemployment payment as compared with a monthly or fortnightly payroll from the employer.

Any worker affected by these issues can contact the Department and arrangements will be made to restore their payment or provide them with interim income support as appropriate.

The Department has received 27,300 applications for the Covid-19 enhanced Illness Benefit. This predominantly relates to people who have been advised by their GP to self-isolate together with a smaller number in respect of people who have been diagnosed with Covid-19.