The Pandemic Unemployment Payment is to be entirely removed by February 2022.
Under plans going to Cabinet today, the emergency wage support will be phased out in three stages starting in September.
Ministers have promised no cliff-edge end to these payments and instead it will be more of a gentle slope.
Last night the Government party leaders agreed to end the Pandemic Unemployment Payment by February next year, following a series of reductions in the value of the payment.
Plans going to Cabinet will see the rates of PUP cut in the middle of September, and again in mid-November, before it's entirely phased out by February.
Rates will be cut by €50 a week for each group on PUP.
Someone on the €350 rate (currently the highest rate) will drop to €300 in September; then drop to €250 in November; and finally to €203 in February.
The final rate of €203 will be the same as the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance weekly rate.
People on lower PUP rates will reach that bottom rate a bit sooner.
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment will close to new applicants on July 1st and students will no longer be eligible from September when the new academic year begins.
125,000 people have come off PUP since the economy began to open up and the Government expects this number to increase.
The broader National Economic Plan to be published by Cabinet today will set out targets for creating jobs over the next 18 months, as part of plans for the economic recovery post-pandemic.
Main image: (l to r) Eamon Ryan, Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
