Over 691,000 people have now applied for the Government's €350 Covid-19 unemployment benefit.
591,000 of these applicants have been successful and will receive money into their accounts on Tuesday although 100,000 people either made a mistake in their application or do not qualify for the payment.
To ensure that only those who are eligible for the payment are receiving it - the welfare department are carrying out the usual checks on all applicants.
These checks are listed below;
Covid-19 payment recipient checks
- Integrity checks are made against records already held by the department including Public Service Information data and cross checks with payments on other schemes. These help to verify if a person is who they claim to be and that they are entitled to claim payment.
- Each week when the department processes the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment payments (PUP), a reconciliation takes place between the department’s payment file and Revenue’s payment file for the COVID-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. This results in claims from those who are being paid by their employer being withheld and therefore not processed by the department’s payment process. These people are then contacted by the department to inform them of the position.
- A prior employment status check is made by comparing all claims for PUP against prior earnings and employment records from Revenue data. Where this check indicates that a person may not have been employed, as claimed, the person is contacted and asked to submit corroborating information. Failure to submit corroborating information leads to the claim being closed.
- As with other welfare schemes, the department contacts recipients to ensure that they continue to satisfy the eligibility criteria of the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
- Data analytics is also used to identify claims where a person may not satisfy other conditions – for example residence in Ireland - and department inspection staff check these cases.
- The department’s inspection staff also participates with Garda and Customs staff, in security checks on major transport routes and transport hubs.
- Confidential reporting facilities are available to the public (1890 927999 and at this link ) and to employers (email to: C19EmployerReports@welfare.ie ) to report cases of suspected mis-claiming.
