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

Since the introduction of the PUP in March approximately 850,000 individuals have applied for the payment. In some cases, they have done so on several occasions as they have moved in and out of employment or where the employer availed of the Revenue temporary wage subsidy scheme. Consequently, there were more than 1.5 million applications to be examined to determine if arrears were due. This is mainly due to the initial time lag in the commencement of payments. These arrears have now been paid. They were paid mainly on 1 December, when 286,000 people received arrears totalling €134 million. A smaller group of people received an arrears payment in the past two weeks due to the extension of the reference period for earnings to September 2020. If the Deputy has a specific issue, I am happy to examine it if he gives me the details.

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