PUP figure crept up in December – CSO
Official figures show that the number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) rose in December, as fresh COVID-19 restrictions were introduced.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that, in the last week of December, there were almost 67,000 people on the PUP – up almost 12,000 from November, but down by more than 300,000 compared with the same month in 2020.
CSO figures also show that the total number of people receiving some kind of income support in November last year fell to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic.
Live Register lower
Almost 492,0000 people were on the Live Register or PUP, or were being supported by one of the Government’s wage-subsidy schemes, in November. The figure had hit almost 1.2 million in April 2020.
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted Live Register figure for December 2021 was 166,300 – down 2,600 from November.