Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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121. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has examined the estimated number of persons who will remain on the pandemic unemployment payment by September 2021 and who will therefore see a reduction in their payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35182/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Pandemic Unemployment Payment, or PUP, has been an important support for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families through COVID19, demonstrating Government's commitment to workers. In total over €8 billion has been paid out on PUP. A total of approximately 870,000 workers have received at least one PUP payment. The Government has also supported employers who have been severely impacted by Covid-19 through the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme.

Approximately 227,980 people received a PUP payment this week, representing a drop of 254,000, or almost 53%, since the numbers in receipt of PUP peaked this year at around 482,000 in February. This reflects the impact of the careful re-opening of sectors of the economy, where it is feasible to do so. Our experience to date has shown that the requirement for emergency measures has been diminishing as more and more people return to work as restrictions are gradually lifted.

As part of the National Economic Recovery Plan, Government announced changes to PUP including a transitional approach to its withdrawal on a tapered basis over 6 months from this September.

The reduction in PUP numbers will depend on continued progress in re-opening the economy and the response of the labour market to this re-opening.

So far the response of the labour market has been very strong and we still have some key sectors that have yet to re-open or fully re-open. Therefore, although it is impossible to be definitive I would expect that the numbers as of early to mid-September this year (2021) - when the PUP payment rate changes - will fall significantly below their low-point of 200,000 last seen in September of last year (2020). We will continue to monitor the numbers in light of the economy's response to the public health restrictions.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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122. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she has met with or engaged with employers in particular with small business owners who are experiencing difficulties with staff recruitment allegedly due to the fact that persons are reluctant to come off the pandemic unemployment payment. [34501/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is available to employees and self-employed people who have lost their employment and the income from that employment due to the pandemic, and who satisfy the other qualifying conditions of the scheme.

As restrictions lift and businesses re-open, employers are contacting their employees to return to work. As would be expected, the vast majority of employees do return and close their PUP claims.

In response to reports from some employers of cases where employees were refusing to return to work, my Department created an employer support line in March 2020 – c19employerreports@welfare.ie.

This facility allowed employers to contact the Department if they were experiencing problems in rehiring staff who were in receipt of the PUP or to report cases of suspected mis-claiming of the PUP.

This facility has been published on Gov.ie and officials from my Department's Special Investigations Unit and Employers Relations Division has also highlighted it in their engagements and discussions with employers and employers representative bodies, particularly those in the hospitality and personal services sectors.

Up to the end of May, some 1,270 employers have contacted the Department through this facility, resulting in reviews of 3,330 PUP claims. Where further information is required to finalise a review, approximately 500 of these PUP claims were stopped. These figures represent a tiny percentage of the hundreds of thousands of people who have availed of the PUP.

Any employer who is experiencing difficulties in staff recruitment should contact my Department for assistance. In addition to the reporting facility to address cases where staff were reluctant to return to employment, my Department can also assist in identifying potentially suitable employees from Live Register and PUP payment data.

Last year the number of people in receipt of the PUP fell from a peak of over 600,000 to just over 200,000 as the economy reopened. This trend has continued this year. Just under 228,000 people received payment under the scheme this week, a reduction of over 253,000 from the 2021 peak in February following the reintroduction of Covid related health restrictions last December.

In the last 8 weeks, the number of people in receipt of the payment has reduced by over 157,000. This clearly shows that the vast majority of people want to return to work as soon as their sector reopens, and their job returns.

To date expenditure on the scheme is over €8 billion which demonstrates the Government’s clear and ongoing commitment to support workers and businesses who have been severely impacted by Covid-19 and approximately 870,000 have availed of this support. The scale of this support is unprecedented in the history of the State.

I can assure the Deputy that as the economy reopens my Department will continue to support workers and employers as we have done at all stages throughout the pandemic.