OVER 300,000 PEOPLE will receive the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week, at a cost of €89.96 million.

In a statement today, the Department of Social Protection said that 40,075 people closed their PUP claim in the last week stating that they were doing so because they are returning to work.

The sector with the highest number of PUP claimants is within accommodation and food service activities (88,659 people), followed by wholesale and retail trade (45,197) and administrative and support service activities (28,705).

The 306,220 people who’ll receive a payment on the PUP this week is in addition to the 194,058 people who are on the Live Register as at the end of November. 

All payments will be in recipients’ bank accounts or at their post office tomorrow. 

In the last week, the top sectors for those who closed their PUP claim were in accommodation and food service activities (17,478), hairdressers and beauty salons (6,858) and wholesale and retail trade (6,693). 

Dublin had the greater number of people closing their claims, followed by Cork, Galway, Kildare and Limerick. 

People under the age of 25 accounted for around a quarter of those who closed their claim this week. 

Under new measures announced last week, self-employed workers will be allowed to earn €960 over two months while also claiming the PUP.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys said: “I very much welcome the significant drop in the number of people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment this week.

“The figure reflects the impact of exiting Level 5 of restrictions – which has seen many businesses re-open and thousands of staff return to the workplace.

A further 46,000 people have closed their PUP claim in the past seven days and over 40,000 of them have done so because they too are returning to work. This is evident in every county and is another positive development. It means that next week’s figure will see another sizeable decrease.