Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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183. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason no proof of unemployment was required when persons were applying for the pandemic unemployment payment; and the number of instances of fraud or attempted fraud in relation to the payment that were reported to her Department. [34500/21]

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 income due to the public health restrictions arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, and who satisfy the other qualifying conditions of the scheme.

The payment has proven to be a vital income support to workers, thousands of whom lost their jobs virtually overnight. To date, expenditure on the scheme is over €8 billion - which demonstrates the Government’s clear and on-going commitment to support workers and businesses who have been severely impacted by Covid-19. Almost 870,000 people have availed of this support - the scale of which is unprecedented in the history of the State.

Since the introduction of the PUP, in excess of 1.7 million PUP claims were received and processed and over 25 million individual payments have been made.

The quickest and easiest way to apply for this payment is online at MyWelfare.ie. Eligible applications received by close of business on a Thursday are processed for payment on the following Tuesday.

My Department accepts that in applying for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, a person is confirming that they have lost their employment as a direct consequence of Covid-19. Accordingly, it is not necessary for a person to provide proof of unemployment, save in exceptional circumstances.

The rate of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment is linked to a person's previous earnings, and my Department uses data from the Revenue Commissioners for this purpose.

Where a person has applied for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and my Department cannot find any record of PRSI contributions or earnings, it contacts the people concerned and asks them to submit evidence of employment, for example a pay slip. Where they provide the required evidence, their claim is then put into payment as quickly as possible.

Almost 6,000 PUP-related suspected fraud allegations, reported by members of the public, have been dealt with by my Department up to the end of May 2021.

As of the 31st of May 2021, some 1,270 employers have contacted the Department's employer reporting facility, resulting in reviews of 3,330 PUP claims. After investigation, approximately 500 of these PUP claims were stopped, which represents less than 0.1 percent of the customers who have availed of PUP.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.