Cork revealed as county with second-highest number of people receiving PUP

Cork has been revealed as the county with the second-highest number of people receiving Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in the country this week.

A total of 19,925 people in Cork are in receipt of the PUP, the Department of Social Protection has revealed.

Dublin is the county with the highest number of people who are receiving PUP this week at 80,789 and Galway has the third-highest number of people receiving the payment at 11,805.

This week, the Department of Social Protection issued weekly payments valued at €65.4 million to a total of 221,088 people in receipt of the PUP.

The PUP figures published are in addition to the 175,281 people who were on the live register at the end of June.

Minister for Justice and Social Protection, Heather Humphreys said the figures show that despite the decision to defer the reopening of indoor hospitality, the number of people in receipt of the PUP has fallen again this week.

“On top of the decrease in numbers, a further 8,000 people closed their PUP claims in the past seven days. This will be reflected in next week’s figures.

“Although we must remain cautious as a result of the Delta variant, we have real grounds to be positive and optimistic.

There are now over 50% of our adult population fully vaccinated. And we are also seeing a significant interest among our younger population in terms of receiving a vaccine from their local pharmacy.

“I want to take this opportunity today to pay tribute to our public health teams who are driving the success of the vaccination roll-out,” she said.

The sector with the highest number of people in receipt of the PUP is accommodation and food service activities at 54,518, followed by wholesale and retail trade at 33,610 and administrative and support service activities at 23,824.