Official figures show that more than 600,000 people were still receiving some sort of income support from the State in August, despite the continued easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) pointed out, however, that the total of just over 636,000 was the lowest full-month figure since the start of the pandemic.

The CSO also released figures showing that there were 165,000 people on the seasonally adjusted Live Register in September – a fall of more than 5,000 compared with August.

The number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in the last week of September was 101,470. This was down 42,000 from August, and was less than half the figure for September 2020.

Lag on EWSS data

Earlier this week, separate figures showed that the adjusted unemployment rate for September – including those on the PUP – was 10%.

Figures for the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) show that it was supporting almost 327,000 workers in August – almost 30% of whom were aged under 25.

The CSO points out that there is a lag on the availability of the EWSS estimates – due to differing pay frequencies, and the time it takes for employers to lodge payslip data with Revenue before it is made available to the statistics body.