90,346 people have received an additional arrears payment of PUP yesterday which in total, amounts to over €49 million.
The Department of Social Protection state that approximately 30,000 of these payments are no longer in receipt of PUP and the arrears payments will be issued to the nominated financial institutions.
Accordingly, any person expecting an arrears payment should check their Bank account or check with their Post Office where they had been collecting their weekly payment.
This week, the PUP payments from the Department of Social Protection were valued at €125.4 million and made to 420,773 people.
This is in addition to the 183,096 people who were on the Live Register at the end of March.
Speaking on the latest PUP figures, Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said: The efforts of the Irish people in suppressing this virus are having a really positive impact.
“We are again this week seeing a welcome reduction in Covid-19 cases, in hospitalisations and in ICU admissions. If we continue to make this kind of progress, we will then be well-placed to consider a further easing of restrictions into May and June. These decisions will be considered closely by Cabinet next week.”
Dublin is the county with the highest number of people who are receiving PUP this week at 135,295. It is followed by Cork (42,003) and Galway (22,733).
1,689 people are currently in receipt of Enhanced Illness Benefit too.
The sector with the highest number of people receiving PUP this week is Accommodation and Food Service activities (103,271), followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade (67,832) and Construction (48,933).
The Construction sector has seen the largest decrease in the number of people receiving PUP this week with 1,236 fewer people receiving the payment compared to last week.
Some 48% of those who received the PUP this week are receiving the maximum rate of €350.
The Department of Social Protection has also warned recipients of various phone and text scams that are doing the rounds.
They state: "Customers and members of the public are reminded about scam phone calls and scam text messages they may receive from individuals purporting to be an official of the Department. These calls and texts display a range of numbers. Any person who receives such a call or text is asked to report it to the Gardaí immediately."
