Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 2 December 2020
92. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that some employees of a company (details supplied) are still awaiting arrears to be paid for social welfare payments that they were prevented from accessing earlier in the year while on the temporary wage subsidy scheme; when these arrears will be paid; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40764/20]
View answerThe priority for my Department up to now has been to ensure that payments are being made currently to workers of the company concerned. To date over 3,200 claims have been put into payment in respect of employees who have applied for a jobseeker's payment. This work is now complete and deciding officers in my Department have commenced reviewing applications in respect of the period pre-September when the Temporary Wage Subsidy scheme was in payment. They are now writing to individual jobseekers requesting that they contact the company for the further information required for this review. The company is aware of this process and are working on the individual requests as they get them.
Entitlement to a casual jobseeker's or short-time work support payment for any day during that period depends, among other things, on whether or not a person received remuneration from their employer for that day. Each case needs to be examined individually to determine if the remuneration paid by the company concerned was in respect of a complete period or only specific days within a period. This will determine if a person may be entitled to a casual jobseeker's payment in respect of the days on which a person did not work.
Because of the volume and complexity of claims involved and the need to go back to individual claimants, the process will take some time.
Once a decision is made on a particular claim, my Department will notify that claimant of the outcome and it will be open to any person who is not satisfied with this decision to seek a review or to appeal that decision to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy
