According to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the total number of individual receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) or on the live register increased by 3.3% to 237,141 over the month to January of 2022.
Further Figures
According to a statement published on the CSO's website, in the last week of January 2022, 75,413 persons were in receipt of the PUP during the last week of January of this year, which was an increase of 8,512 from December of 2021 and a decrease of 410,551 from January of last year.
57.9% of the 75,413 individuals who were in receipt of the PUP for the week ending 30 January of 2022 were male, 70.4% were Irish and approximately a quarter were in each of the 25-34 year old (21.0%), 35-44 year old (24.2%) and 45-54 year old (21.0%) age groups, while 46.7% of the 274,431 individuals currently estimated to have been directly supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) in December of 2021 were male and 53.3% were female, according to the CSO.
The statement published on the CSO's website also said that the unadjusted live register total stood at 162,578 for January of this year, and that the seasonally adjusted live register total for January of this year was 164,000, down 2,900 from December of 2021.
491,740 persons were benefitting from the PUP or the EWSS or on the live register in December of 2021, down from 805,270 in December of the previous year, according to the CSO.
Statement By CSO Statistician
The statement published on the CSO's website included a statement from CSO statistician Morgan O'Donnell that said, "The unadjusted live register total for January 2022 was 162,578. When seasonal effects are considered, the seasonally adjusted live register total for January 2022 was 164,000, which is a decrease of 2,900 persons from December 2021.
"Outside of the traditional Live Register, in the last week of January 2022, 75,413 people were in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). There were 410,551 fewer persons in receipt of the PUP at the end of January 2022 than at the end of January 2021. Users should consider the impact of government restrictions when comparing the numbers of people in receipt of the PUP at different points in time. It is also necessary to take into consideration that the PUP was closed to new applicants on 08 July 2021 before being reopened for individuals, including the self-employed, who lost their employment on or after 07 December 2021 until 22 January 2022 following the introduction of COVID-19 related public health restrictions."
O'Donnell continued, "The CSO have included monthly estimates of the number of persons being supported by the EWSS up to December 2021 in the Live Register release and in the PxStat series LRM20. While the PUP and the Live Register are weekly schemes, the availability of the EWSS data depends on an employee's pay frequency which could be weekly, fortnightly, every four weeks or monthly. Because of these differing pay frequencies, and the time it takes for employers to lodge payslip data with the Revenue Commissioners before it is made available to the CSO for dissemination purposes, there is a lag on the availability of the EWSS estimates in the same way there was for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) estimates in 2020.
"Of the 274,431 persons currently estimated to have been directly supported by the EWSS in December 2021, 46.7% were male and 53.3% were female while 26.1% were aged under 25 and 73.9% were aged 25 years and over.
"The total number of persons that were on the Live Register or who benefitted from the COVID-19 income supports (PUP, TWSS or EWSS) to December 2021 has also been made available today.
"In December 2021, 491,740 persons were on the Live Register or were benefitting from the PUP, TWSS or the EWSS. Of those, 51.2% were male and 48.8% were female, while 18.9% were aged under 25 and 81.1% were aged 25 years and over. The number of persons supported by all schemes was down from 805,270 recorded in December 2020. December 2021 is the current low point of that series (491,740) while November 2021 (497,734) is the next lowest point of the series. The current high point of the series was reached in April 2020 (1,179,271). The COVID-19 income support schemes were introduced in March 2020 and the first payment of the PUP referred to the week ending 22 March 2020, while the TWSS was first paid on 24 March 2020, but could relate to earlier payslips."
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