The Department of Social Protection has asked anyone that's receiving the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) to confirm their continued eligibility for the payment by July 20.
In a statement, the Department said: "As is standard with all social welfare payments, people receiving the pandemic unemployment payment may be asked from time to time to confirm their eligibility to continue to receive their payment.
"This helps to ensure that people who have, for example, returned to work are reminded to close their claim and avoid incurring an overpayment.
"Similar to earlier this year and last year the Department has begun a process of contacting PUP recipients asking them to confirm their ongoing entitlement."
If anyone is in receipt of the PUP, they're being asked to log onto MyWelfare and follow the instructions under the heading ‘Continued eligibility to receive PUP."
If an individual is experiencing difficulties during this process, they can also contact the dedicated helpline on 1890 800 024 (Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm).
Given the recent increase in scams and fraudsters impersonating government employees, the Department has also issued an updated fraud warning.
It states: "The Department wishes to make it absolutely clear that it is not requesting bank account or other financial institution details as part of the ‘Confirm Eligibility’ process."
This particular warning is in addition to the recent scam phone calls and text messages that thousands of people have received whereby fraudsters are claiming to be an official of the Department.
In terms of the broader picture, just over 221,000 people received the PUP this week, a decrease of nearly 6,900 when compared to the previous seven days.
Elsewhere, €65.4 million in PUP weekly payments was paid and the payment remains open for new applications up to and including July 7.
Take note of this date because this means that from July 8, PUP will be closed to new applications.
Any individual who loses employment after July 7, should apply for a Jobseeker’s payment. The quickest and easiest way to apply for a Jobseeker’s payment is online via MyWelfare.ie.
Speaking about today's PUP update, Minister Heather Humphreys said: “Today’s figures show that despite the decision to defer the re-opening of indoor hospitality, the number of people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has fallen again this week.“
She adds: "On top of the decrease in numbers, a further 8,000 people closed their PUP claims in the past seven days. This will be reflected in next week’s figures. Although we must remain cautious as a result of the Delta variant, we have real grounds to be positive and optimistic.
“There are now over 50% of our adult population fully vaccinated. And we are also seeing a significant interest among our younger population in terms of receiving a vaccine from their local pharmacy.
“I want to take this opportunity today to pay tribute to our public health teams who are driving the success of the vaccination roll-out.”
