Scale of Covid hit laid bare: 1.3m people needed wage subsidy or PUP during crisis
In the past week, the PUP figures had fallen sharply by 13,500, to 363,000, for the first time as more parts of the economy that were shut down since Christmas started to reopen. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision
The huge scale of the Covid economic crisis on Irish households has been laid bare with more than 1.3m people – or 60% of the labour force – having required some sort of welfare payment since the onset of the pandemic 14 months ago, official figures reveal.
The CSO numbers include the people who have needed one of the two Government's wage-subsidy schemes – the current Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme and its temporary predecessor, as well as the pandemic unemployment or PUP payments. The figures do not, however, include people on the job seeker's allowances.
A total of 1,320,837 persons benefitted from the PUP, the TWSS or the EWSS between March 2020 and March 2021https://t.co/CQVPUD39cX #COVIDIreland #CSOIreland #Ireland #Households #Families #IrishFamilies #IrishHouseholds #LabourMarket #Jobs #Employment pic.twitter.com/YLHy6JbZrK
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) May 20, 2021
The overall numbers are unprecedented in the history of the State and show how the public money spent on PUP and wage-subsidy schemes, and other welfare supports have prevented the Covid recession becoming an economic slump.
Economists have said the focus will increasingly fall on the numbers who are on the wage-subsidy scheme as people come off the PUP as the economy fully opens through early summer – in the absence of any flare-up of Covid cases driven by variants.
In the past week, the PUP figures had fallen sharply by 13,500, to 363,000, for the first time as more parts of the economy that were shut down since Christmas started to reopen.
However, people laid off from the three biggest areas that have suffered most from the health restrictions, including accommodation and food service, retail, and construction, continue to have large numbers who need the pandemic payments.
The CSO said 863,546 people had received at least one PUP payment since the scheme began in March last year.
It said the numbers on the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, or TWSS, which ran to August last year and was succeeded by EWSS, supported 664,098 people for at least one week.
The EWSS, which supported the incomes of 294,007 at the end of March, has in all subsidised the wages of 562,420 people for at least one week since its launch last autumn, the figures show.
The CSO said the numbers requiring a payment from the PUP and TWSS or the EWSS peaked at just over 1m last May – during the first of the countrywide lockdowns.
Analyst have said the experience of the lockdowns is that the hit to households and businesses has been slightly less during the latest lockdown.
However, they warn that many small firms will not reopen because of their losses of the past 14 months.
The latest PUP figures from the Department of Social Protection this week showed that accommodation and food service, long the largest group requiring the PUP, accounted for just over 96,400 people because the restrictions on the industry will only start lifting next month, at the earliest.
The number of people in wholesale and retail requiring the PUP at 59,545, was down by only 2,570 in the week.
And at just over 31,580, the number requiring the PUP in one of the largest groups, construction, was down by 3,080.
There are other areas too, including administrative and support services, at 31,860 people, which have also shown small declines in the past week.
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