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

I thank the Deputy. Where a person is self-employed, his or her gross average weekly income for 2018 is used to calculate the rate of the pandemic unemployment payment. That is because it is the last tax year for which verifiable data on self-employed income is available. The nature of self-employment is such that it is not possible for Revenue and for PRSI purposes to attribute self-employment income to any particular week, and earnings are assessed on a full-year basis. Any person who feels that the assessment of his or her earnings based on returns already submitted to Revenue is inaccurate can ask for a review of his or her case, with further details available on www.gov.ie. It should be noted that any person on the new rate of payment will be eligible to apply for the standard jobseeker's rate, which, for a two-adult household with one child, is €377 per week. Any person who is experiencing hardship may apply for support under the means-tested supplementary welfare allowance scheme also.

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