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Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Questions (119)

Mick Barry

Question:

119. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider not reducing the pandemic unemployment payment given the level of poverty experienced by those on social protection payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34794/21]

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Written answers

The Pandemic Unemployment Payment or PUP has been an important support for hundreds of thousands of workers and their families through COVID19. To date expenditure on the scheme is over €8 billion with payments made to just under 900,000 people.

UP was introduced as an exceptional measure in response to the global pandemic. As thousands of jobs are resuming each week with the gradual lifting of public health restrictions, the requirement for emergency measures is diminishing. It is important from a sustainability and equity point of view that we begin the process of transitioning to standard social welfare levels of payment over time.

To allow as much time as possible for employment to recover, a tapered approach will be taken with PUP whereby the rates of payment will remain unchanged until September when they will commence a gradual reduction over 6 months back to the jobseekers rate. Advance notice will be given to recipients so that there is no sudden and unexpected withdrawal of support.

Irish social welfare rates of payment compare well with peer countries. Social transfers, excluding pensions, continued to perform strongly in reducing the at-risk-of-poverty rate. Without social transfers and pension income, EU-SILC research indicates that the at-risk-of-poverty rate would be 41.4%. After social transfers, the rate is 12.8%. This is a poverty reduction effect of nearly 70%, one of the highest in Europe.

It will take some time for the full social impact and the impact on poverty levels of the pandemic to become clear, particularly in the form of official data which takes time to gather and process. Nevertheless, data and research published by the ESRI since the beginning of the pandemic shows the importance of the social protection system for supporting those on low incomes in general and the role of pandemic supports in ‘cushioning’ the impact of the unemployment shock related to the pandemic.

I trust that this clarifies the position at this time.

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