Over 19,000 more people apply for Pandemic Unemployment Payment in past week

Over 19,000 more people applied for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in the past week, it has been revealed.

The Department of Social Protection also disclosed the numbers claiming a payment this week had increased substantially.

In figures released on Monday night, a spokesperson said the Department paid out €61.9 million in Covid supports to 217,142 people this week.

This represents an increase of 10,801 on the 206,341 people paid last week.

A total of 8,690 people closed their PUP claims in the past week, with 6,309 of these indicating they were returning to work.

The Department said the increase the numbers applying for PUP payments could be partially attributed to the Level 3 lockdown in Dublin.

A spokesperson said: "The greatest increase is in Dublin, with the number of PUP payments rising to 85,892, up 10,000 from last week.

"Further increases are expected where a region has moved to Level 3 or higher."

Effects of the Donegal lockdown have yet to be seen as it only came into force last Friday.

The Department said any such impact from the Donegal lockdown is likely to be reflected in next week's figures.

The sector with the highest number of people receiving a PUP payment this week is Accommodation and Food Service activities, up by almost 7,000 from last week. 

Meanwhile, Education and Public Administration and Defence are the only sectors with a slight fall in PUP payments this week.