Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 June 2020
1143. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications for the pandemic unemployment payment which her Department has rejected due to there being no record of the applicant's employment; the steps she will take to investigate those employers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9426/20]
View answerThe emergency Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been introduced as a time-limited emergency measure so that payments can be made as quickly as possible to the large number of people who have become fully unemployed due to the pandemic.
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. To date, over 4.9 million payments have issued to just over 670,000 individuals at a cost of over €1.7 Billion.
Currently, the Department is focused on processing and managing payments to ensure that they continue to be made to all who qualify for them. The work involved in doing this is complex, with people joining and leaving the scheme each week, along with management of overlaps between the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the Revenue Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.
As with all schemes, there is a balance to be struck between ‘ex ante’ checking of every claim in fine detail to absolutely verify its validity (a process which would be very time consuming and result in long payment delays) and ‘ex post’ validation of claims. The Department conducts both ‘ex ante’ and ‘ex post’ checks on all its schemes to prevent fraud and error from entering the social welfare system in the first instance and, where it does, to detect instances as quickly as possible.
Similar to other schemes, applications for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment are assessed in the first instance based on information provided by the claimant. Where this information is incomplete or where it indicates that the person does not satisfy the eligibility conditions, the claim cannot be processed. In addition to a review of the information provided by the client, the Department has put in place a number of compliance checks to ensure that the payment of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment is only being made to those entitled to the income support.
To qualify for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, a person must have been in employment immediately prior to 13 March 2020, and be in a position to provide evidence confirming this when requested. Cases where an employer has failed to return PRSI contributions in respect of an employee will be investigated by the Department. Where any employer is found not to be operating the PRSI scheme correctly the Department will use all of its powers to recover any outstanding monies due to the exchequer. Payment of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment may be made in the interim once there is sufficient evidence to confirm that the employment took place.
If a person does not meet these requirements, they may be entitled to other supports under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme if they are experiencing financial hardship.
I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
