The €350 weekly Covid-19 payment is reportedly set to be reduced from early June.
The Sunday Times reports that the Minister for Finance will bring forward plans to change the scheme to the Cabinet this Friday.
Minster Paschal Donohoe will propose that from June,recipients will be paid their average income before the pandemic to avoid people refusing to look or return to work.
Labour’s Social Protection spokesperson Ged Nash TD this morning said it would be unacceptable for Fine Gael to cut the COVID-19 income of the lowest paid in our society in June.
Deputy Nash said: "Cutting the basic income of thousands of workers when large parts of the economy are shut, with no alternative for them to go back to work would be wrong.
"It is reported today that the Minister for Finance will now cut the €350 weekly Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) for some recipients next month.
"Thousands of people who rely on part time hours, irregular and precarious shift patterns, and seasonal work will now be impacted by Fine Gael's latest attack on social welfare recipients despite large parts of the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors being closed.
“The language used by Fine Gael to target these paid who have lost their jobs is straight out of the ‘welfare cheats’ conservative hard-man playbook the Taoiseach deployed when he was Minister for Social Protection."
585,000 people in Ireland are now receiving the €350 weekly payment which is costing the country €200 million every week.
