Major changes to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment have been announced in light of the removal of most Covid restrictions in Ireland.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin said in an address to the nation that the majority of rules will be relaxed from 6am on Saturday.
Hospitality venues can resume normal trading, social distancing rules are removed, and crowds can return in full capacity at events.
Among the changes taking effect from Saturday morning are those impacting PUP recipients.
From Saturday, January 22 the PUP will close to new applicants after the government approved future plans for the social welfare payment.
From March 8, anyone still in receipt of the PUP will move to a weekly rate of €208.
This marks a four-week extension on what was previously announced.
The Department of Social Protection has initially said that the rates would be slashed on February 8.
It was also announced by the department on Friday evening that from April 5, PUP recipients will start transitioning to standard jobseeker terms, and if eligible, will move onto a jobseeker payment.
The Minister for Social Protection said: “The Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been an absolutely vital support for workers and their families.
“What was originally intended to be just a six week short-term payment will now last for over two years with over €9 Billion in payments issued to workers.
“In line with the widespread lifting of restrictions from tomorrow, the Government has today approved plans for the winding down of the PUP over the coming months.
“The decision to lift restrictions represents a hugely positive step which will see tens of thousands of people return to work over the coming weeks as the country begins to return to normal.”
There are currently five weekly rates of PUP payable for these workers who lost their job as a result of Covid restrictions.
The rate of payment is determined by the person’s weekly earnings, namely €350, €300, €250, €208 and €150.
There have already been a number of changes to the PUP rates since the emergency social welfare payment was introduced in March 2020.
The most recent of these was last November. If recipients earned between €200 and €299.99 per week and were on the €203 rate of payment up to November 9, they then began moving to standard jobseeker’s terms.
For those who earned between €300 and €399.99 per week - the rate of payment is now €203 per week.
And if claimants earned €400 or more, the rate of payment dropped to €250 per week.
