The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) has been extended for new entrants who may lose their jobs after Christmas.
New applicants can apply up until the end of March 2021 - it was due to close to new applications at the end of December.
The extension of the closing date to March 31 will ensure workers can still access the PUP in January in the event that their employment ceases after Christmas.
To date, over €4.3 billion has been paid out under PUP to hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs as a result of the Pandemic.
Ministers signed off on the extension at Cabinet on Tuesday after concerns raised by the retail and hospitality sector.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said: “I have listened to the retail and hospitality sector and I know they have had concerns that closing PUP to new entrants on December 31st, as originally planned, would act as disincentive to take up work.
“This extension will help mitigate the risk that employees might think they would encounter were they to take up work in the lead-in to Christmas.
“It’s about giving employees some peace of mind.”
Minister Humphreys also secured Government approval to extend the waiver on waiting days for Jobseeker payments until the end of March 2021.
Ms Humphreys added: “This will ensure that individuals who get temporary work between now and the end of March, and who lose their job can claim a jobseeker’s payment and receive their income support immediately.”
Meanwhile, new figures have shown that there were 374 data breaches identified in the Department of Social Protection in 2019.
Nearly 50% of breaches involved the delivery of correspondence to an incorrect address or to the customer’s previous address.
While 31% of cases accidentally included a document or an intel of personal data of a customer in correspondence with another customer.
And 14% were associated with email errors including personal data of another customer.
The details were provided to Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald from Ms Humphreys.
The Minister added: “Apart from those three main categories, the other breaches of data protection in 2019 included instances where, at frontline customer service, a wrong appointment letter was handed to a customer or personal data was inadvertently allowed to be viewed by a third party.
“Some personal data was not redacted in granting a freedom of information request; a notification to an employer was sent in error in the absence of customer consent; and system errors, e.g. where the files of one unit of the Department became temporarily visible to another unit.”
