Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not trying to avoid the Deputy's question but as I understand it, the Department of Finance will have it in the finance Bill and a decision will be made there because it is the Department of Finance that makes the final decision.

I was asked what would happen if a person's PUP was based on January or February income and then changed from March to September. The answer is that the person will get the best of both worlds. It is the best calculation. If somebody got a job in May or June and was earning more than he or she earned in January or February, his or her PUP will be related to his or her increased salary. If a person is not happy, he or she can appeal it.

We had a good few arrears on the original PUP. We have all received calls to our offices. Staff have worked extremely hard so we hope those arrears will be paid before Christmas and we will get them all up to date. Again, the priority was to get the payments out. We then got landed with the increased restrictions so it meant another workload came in. We are working very hard on it and hope to have it sorted before Christmas.

Regarding the income disregard, Deputy Ó Cathasaigh asked about the facility for people to earn €480. I am not aware of any difficulties with it and I think it is working well. It was particularly difficult for the self-employed. Again, taxi drivers come to mind because I spoke to a number of them. They were out trying to get work and there was very little work for them so they were able to get the PUP and allowed to earn up to €480 per month.

That has been very helpful, and for artists too. Some artists who might have got the odd gig were afraid to do it in case they lost their pandemic unemployment payment but we are now able to assist with that. That has been some help to them. It is very difficult for everybody and when one sees them standing around waiting to try to get business, it is not easy.

The Deputy asked when the €480 payment came into operation. That has been in operation since it was announced on budget day.

Deputy Paul Donnelly asked how we came up with the figure of €350. It is the equivalent of a jobseeker's payment for two adults and one child. That is the way we based it. If there were two adults and a child in a household they were getting something like €340, so it was rounded up. That is how we arrived at the €350 figure.