Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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161. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a decision has been made on the way in which the pandemic unemployment payment is to be treated for the purposes of means tests for social welfare payments such as the disability allowance. [29102/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The current position in relation to the pandemic unemployment payment is that it can be paid concurrently with certain social assistance payments, including disability allowance. The pandemic unemployment payment is not assessed as means.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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162. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when backdated pandemic unemployment payment arrears will be paid to a person (details supplied). [29146/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The person concerned initially applied for Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) on 6/4/2020 indicating that he last worked on 13/3/2020. He was awarded the PUP from 3/4/2020. My Department’s records reflect that the person concerned closed his PUP application as he was returning to work on 3/7/2020.

Since the introduction of the PUP scheme in March, approximately 750,000 people have applied for payment and in some cases, they have done so on a number of occasions as they moved in and out of employment. Consequently, there are over 1 million applications to be examined to determine if arrears are due. In order to address an issue of this scale, the Department is currently developing an automated process, which will examine each case and look at their overall entitlement to payment and match this against their payment history. The work involved is complex as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment system itself evolved from a manual applications system to one where applications were submitted online. Given the complexity attached to the project, it will take some time to complete the necessary work to review all cases and to determine to what extent arrears are due to individuals. The intention is that all arrears will be paid in the coming months.

If arrears arise in the case of the person concerned, they will be processed and issued to him.

My Department’s records show that the person concerned submitted an application for Jobseeker’s Allowance on 23/09/2020. Further documentation has been requested in order to progress this application and on receipt of this his application will be progressed.

If the person concerned is experiencing financial difficulty, it is open to him to contact his local Community Welfare Service and seek assistance under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme while his application is being processed. This service can be contacted by phone at (01) 8581100 and by Email at cwsfinglas@welfare.ie

I trust this clarifies the matter.