The Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment is available to employees who lost their employment as a direct consequence of Covid-19. It is also available to self-employed people whose income from self-employment ceased or reduced as a direct consequence of the pandemic to the extent that they would be available to take up full-time employment. It is a long-standing feature of social welfare legislation that individuals who are engaged in employment or self-employment are liable to pay PRSI on those activities. In those circumstances, it is expected that persons claiming the Pandemic Unemployment Payment would have a recent and verifiable record of PRSI. In common with all other social welfare schemes, applications for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment are subject to verification prior to award. In relation to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, the Department uses earnings data supplied by the Revenue Commissioners for 2019 and 2020 in the case of employees, and 2018 and 2019 in the case of self-employed people. In the case of individuals who have only recently commenced self-employment, the Department will accept evidence of registration with the Revenue Commissioners in the absence of any returns. Revenue data is updated as often as practicable, and in the case of employees on a daily basis. For self-employed individuals, my Department has recently received an update from the Revenue Commissioners on 2019 self-assessment returns. However, as these returns are filed on an annual basis and the deadline for filing is 10 December 2020, some returns will still be outstanding. This earnings data is used for two purposes – firstly to confirm that a person has been either employed or self-employed, and secondly to determine the rate of payment due. Where the Department cannot find any record of contributions or earnings in the reference period, it contacts the people concerned and asks them to submit evidence of employment in the form of recent payslips etc. Where people do provide evidence, their claim is put into payment as quickly as possible – generally within a week of receiving the information. It is always the case when processing such a large volume of claims that there will be some cases where claims cannot be paid on initial examination due to incomplete or missing information or the customer has no entitlement to the payment. However, where a person is able to supply the required information, my Department will act quickly to arrange payment. I hope that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
