Written answers

Thursday, 30 July 2020

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment

Photo of Chris AndrewsChris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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866. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if an application for the reduced pandemic unemployment payment by a person (details supplied) can be reviewed in view of the fact their details were incorrectly reviewed initially; and if their payment can be allocated according to their correct income details. [20323/20]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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From the 29th June the rate of Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) which a person receives will depend on their gross weekly employment earnings as follows;

- For those whose prior gross earnings were €200 per week or higher (about 75% of recipients), the PUP payment rate remains at €350 per week;

- For those whose prior gross earnings were up to €199.99 per week (about 25% of recipients), the PUP payment rate is €203 per week.

- A person who was in receipt of JA/JB as a part-time or casual worker immediately prior to receipt of PUP will remain on the rate of €350 irrespective of their previous earnings.

The rate of PUP is based on prior earnings notified to Revenue. It is important to note that my Department will only accept earnings which have been notified to Revenue and subject to PRSI.

For employees – the reference periods are 2019 (full year) and 2020 (January/February).  

Where an employee record was found in 2019 or 2020, assessment was based on the information available. A person received the benefit of which ever rate was the more favourable.

Where no employee record was available, my Department looked in 2018 for self-employment contributions. The assessment of average weekly earnings is based on the Class S record only.

For self-employed persons– the last year for which complete data is available is 2018. This is the year which was used. While there are a limited number of Class S returns on record for 2019, these relate to returns under the PAYE system; in a significant number of cases, these returns require further examination, or the data could distort the examination of individual employee returns for that year.

The income figure used by my Department, having first been confirmed by the Revenue Commissioners is the self-employed income, after the application of capital allowances.  In the case of the person concerned this figure is deemed to be €10,200.  My Department uniformly applies this rule across all the PUP applications and is consistent in its approach.  Regrettably, following of a review of the PUP rate, in the case of the person concerned, the rate remains at €203.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

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