EU national who travelled home challenges State's decision to stop PUP payments

In May, she travelled to Romania to help care for her elderly father, whose care centre had closed.

Prior to boarding her flight at Dublin Airport, she claims she was stopped by a social welfare inspector, who asked to see her identification and her PPS number. File photo: Brian Lawless/PA

An EU national residing in Ireland has brought a High Court challenge over the State withdrawing her Pandemic Unemployment Payment after she returned home to deal with a family emergency.

The action against the Minister for Social Protection and the State has been taken by Maria Lupu, a Romanian citizen working in Dublin as a property inspector and who has lived here for more than 20 years.