The total number of people on the live register or receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment increased by 2.5% to 535,786 during November 2020.

The unadjusted live register total stands at 194,058 for November 2020, while the seasonally adjusted total for the month was 203,900 – down 6,900 from October 2020.

During the final week of November 2020, a total of 351,424 people were receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), though this figure was down 651 in the week ending 29 November 2020.

Equal male/female split

Of those receiving the pandemic payment during the final week of November, there was almost a 50/50 split between male and female, 70% were Irish, and approximately one-fifth each were in the 25-to-34-year-old (22.8%) and 35-to-44-year-old (21.7%) age groups.

CSO Statistician Catalina Gonzalez says: “In the last week of November 2020, 351,424 of those employed whose income has been affected due to COVID-19 benefitted from the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) which is administered by the Department of Social Protection (DSP).

Review ongoing

“A review of non-recipient live-register claims is ongoing at the DSP, and relates primarily to cases where a person who received a PUP has since closed their PUP claim and reported a return to employment,” said Ms Gonzales.

This will have an impact on the live register totals, as some non-recipient jobseeker claims were included on the live register, but their jobseeker claims were not automatically closed at that time.

Student PUP recipients

The CSO’s analysis of the online information provided to it shows that at least 7.4% of PUP recipients have self-certified as being registered as full-time students.

For those aged 25 years and over, this could be as low as 2%, while for those under 25 years, it is at least 23%.

If the PUP scheme did not exist, people in full-time education would not be eligible to receive unemployment assistance or unemployment benefit.