The number of people set to receive the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) this week is 352,078 – an increase of just over 2,000 in the last seven days, according to the latest figures from the Department of Social Protection.
This week's payments will cost €104m, bringing the total cost of the PUP scheme since its inception last March to over €4.3bn.
The 352,000 PUP claimants do not include a further 203,172 people reported on the Live Register at the end of October. Between PUP and Jobseekers Benefit, a total of 555,250 claimants are totally dependent on the state for income support.
Today's figures also reveal that over the last seven days, 4,912 people closed their PUP claims, with two thirds of those (3,251) doing so because they were