Government urged to restore full pandemic unemployment payment

The government should restore the full rate of Pandemic Unemployment Payment, warned People Before Profit TD Brid Smith. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The full Covid unemployment payment must be restored now the country has moved to Level 3 lockdown restrictions, People Before Profit have said.

TD Bríd Smith said the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) rate of €350 is "not a king's ransom" and she will be tabling a Private Members Bill in the Dáil on the issue this morning.

The emergency payment was originally available to all workers who were unemployed as a result of Covid-19 at a rate of €350 per week, and Ms Smith says "the logic hasn't changed, people still need money to live."

There are now three rates for the payment - €300 for people who were earning over €300 per week; €250 for those earning €200-300; and €203 for those earning less than €200. 

The rates were cut at the beginning of September. The current Covid supports currently cost around €65m each week.

Ms Smith told Newstalk Breakfast that new restrictions mean the payments paid at full rate are now essential.

"We can't expect people to hold back from going to work, or go to school or childcare, without giving them the support - €350 is not a king's ransom.

"I can't imagine what it must be like to try and put food on the table for your kids, pay your rent, which will have been put back up and there'll be a backlog, and all sorts of bills."

Ms Smith said it "was a small cohort of people" who were earning more on the payment than they had worked.

"If we do have to move to level four and level five, and hundreds and thousands of more people are put out of work because we can't expect the country to acknowledge: 'We're all in this together,' if we don't give people the supports. That was the logic the last time around.

"We've learned a lot, but people can't live on masks and tests, they need money to live."