Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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847. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a person who comes off the pandemic unemployment payment for short-term seasonal work should reapply for the pandemic unemployment payment or the jobseeker's allowance when the seasonal work comes to an end. [32480/20]

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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884. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the pandemic unemployment payment will be backdated for those cut on 17 September 2020; if the payment will be cut again from 1 December 2020 and cut further in January 2021, as planned; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32886/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 847 and 884 together.

If a person's seasonal work comes to an end as a consequence of normal seasonal factors, the person should make a claim for jobseekers benefit or jobseeker's allowance.

To be eligible for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment Scheme a person should satisfy all of the qualifying conditions which include that an employee must have lost their employment as a direct consequence of the pandemic. This scheme remains available to new applicants until the end of 2020.

Following the move to level 5 restrictions the Pandemic Unemployment Payment is being paid at 4 rates with effect from 16th October; €203, €250, €300 and €350. A new rate of €350 has been introduced where a person had prior earnings of €400 or more. This change is effective from 16 October and is not being applied retrospectively.

The payment of PUP will be kept under review in light of the evolving public health crisis.

I trust that this clarifies the matter at this time.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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848. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of pandemic unemployment payment recipients who are awaiting payments for arrears due; when these arrears will be paid; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32498/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Since the introduction of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment scheme in March, approximately 806,000 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 1.4 million applications to be examined to determine if arrears are due.

During the month of March, my Department received and processed jobseeker claims equivalent in number to a three year claim-load. These applications were processed as quickly as possible, with almost 59,000 people paid in the first week of the scheme, 283,000 people paid in the following week, and over 507,000 people in the third week of the scheme.

My Department is keenly aware that many people are due some arrears and that every case will be different. In order to address an issue of this scale, my 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 and paid over two different payment platforms (one from March to July and the second from July to date).

Given the complexity attached to the project, it will take some time yet to complete the necessary development work to review all cases and to determine to what extent, if any, arrears are due to individuals. I can assure the Deputy that this is a priority for my Department and it is hoped to make payments before the end of the year. The information sought by the Deputy on the number of individuals awaiting payment is not available at this time as work on the development and deployment of the automated process has not concluded.

I hope that this clarifies matters for the Deputy.