Corona virus and social protection

My missus has been receiving the payment as the business she owns went to the wall in March. The payments normally come in on a Tuesday. No sign today. She hasn't heard anything from them. Just checking if anybody know if this is usual (and just a delay) or does she need to get onto them.

Sienna5050 wrote: »

Hi i have been on the lower rate of Pup and recieve Dissibility Allowance,as they seem to be changing the rules all the time they seem to now say you must be available and looking for full time work,but to recieve DA you must not be able to work full time which is why im in reciept of it ,does this mean i will loose the Pup payment ,and when will this happen

To my knowledge, being on DA and the PUP will not affect your DA (SW said at the beginning that you could be on certain payments, such as DA, Carer's Allowence and Widow's Pension and still apply for the PUP).

Specifically, you are allowed to be on the DA and work so therefore, you could still have lost work (even part time) and need to claim the PUP.

It says here:

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/covid19_and_social_welfare.html#l9c4d8

"If you lose your job or your hours at work are reduced
If your income is a mixture of both earnings from employment and a social welfare payment and you lose your job because of the COVID-19 public health emergency, you can apply for the new COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment."

And also on Gov.ie (last updated June 11th):

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/3baec-minister-doherty-announces-pandemic-unemployment-payment-to-continue/#:~:text=Workers%20in%20receipt%20of%20both,their%20underlying%20social%20welfare%20entitlement.

"Workers in receipt of both employment income and social welfare payments (e.g. carers who work, people on Disability Allowance who work, recipients of the Working Family Payment and the One-Parent Family payment) receive, and will continue to receive PUP in addition to their underlying social welfare entitlement."

ATC110 wrote: »

Received a written reply today, postmarked Waterford, to my request for a review of the weekly rate.

The outcome of the review is I will remain on the lower rate.

It explicitly states "under PUP rating rules, self-employed incomes can only be examined in respect of the 2018 year and the income figures used by the Department for PUP (and all other schemes) is always the figure after capital allowances and deductible business expenses".

There is no return address on the letter and it's signed the "PUP Rerate Team".

There is also no invitation to submit 2019 tax return details.

Has anyone had a similar letter or have they been invited to submit 2019 details?

Replied in other thread but 2019 figures only being considered by gov, no decision on this yet

edwardkiley wrote: »

Hi
Does anyone know if employers or employees will have to pay an amount of money back to the state for the PUP paid out?

Morning, nothing is set in stone yet as such, there's been hints Revenue will come up with a solution so people don't get hammered, ideas include looking at any possible tax credits owed, my guess and its only a guess, there will be flexibility with no major shocks.

As both PUP and TWSS are not taxed at source, there will be some liability, as regards employers, I'm not sure but I assume employers PRSI contributions will be looked at re TWSS

It's been extended, have you seen any news? Basically extended till April 2021 but payments reducing from mid September, go on gov.ie to see how payment will reduce, also new rule, "must be look for work" if fully unemployed, as in no chance of returning to your job etc

Segundo Volanante wrote: »

Thanks for that

It's not my claim, it's my mams, was her 12th payment last week, she had it cut from 350 to 204 a month ago

She works in a primary school

So her normal 204 will be there this week?

A, I see, yes it will, does your mum have access to her mywelfare account, it's easy enough to set up, email address and phone number, good way to keep a track on it. Her €204 won't reduce as part of proposed reductions as that's the minimum, hopefully her school reopening soon, good luck

yoshiktk wrote: »

Did anyone had problem with GP's refusing to give cert for Covid19 - self isolation? I just came back from Poland, went there due family reasons. But my GP and few others refused to give me cert as for them I was there on holiday, even thou I did send them a death cert of my father. Any idea what to do now? The company im working wont let me in before the 14 day period and they cant pay me for the quarantine.
Thanks

That's extremely harsh and sorry for your loss. My opinion (and I could be wrong) self isolating) is not the same as medically advised/recommended isolating, this is why the GP is refusing. The government guidelines seem to suggest you must self isolate but I can't see anything whereby you could sign on for PUP for example. Not sure if will help but contact social welfare and explain the situation, you have the death cert as evidence etc, there is a free phone 1800 number, your circumstances are specific and they might be reasonable, Might!!!

yoshiktk wrote: »

As far I could find, it should be covered under the Illness benefit. For my company the gov guideline is a "golden rule", they wont let me or my wife back. I've tried the one of Social nr for payments, cant find which one now. Got response that without the cert they cant do anything. Gosh the world is crazy thanks to corona. Will try to get something out from Intreo tomorrow.

I've checked and unfortunately it's not covered under enhanced illness benifit as a specific six cert is required to confirm a covid related illness.

It's just a thought but if you've been temporarily laid off, and you technically have been, would it be worth claiming for PUP, I'm just not sure as even that is related to being laid off temporarily, fully or loss of earnings re self employment as a result of Covid-19. Claiming for PUP just requires your details, employer details and simplest way is through the mywelfre portal

yoshiktk wrote: »

I was looking at this paragraph:

Plus the link to HSE page states, that people traveling from abroad have to self-isolate. It's sucha a mess. Ill try Intreo tomorrow, depending from their asnwer Ill maybe try the PUP.

Agreed its a mess but GP's caught in the middle, they can't issue a medical cert saying people are incapacitated when they are technically not, this said and given your family bereavement, it's a little surprising the GP didn't show some flexibility and compassion . Good luck with whatever you decide

Mogfather wrote: »

Hi all, for some reason I can't start a new thread.
I'm returning to college in September. I'm still unemployed and receiving the pandemic unemployment payment.
Will this be ceased when I go back to college? I am not eligible for SUSI.
Thank you!

It's a good question and I'm sure many in your situation will be asking about this. Technically if your a full time student your limited in any SW entitlements. The PUP was brought in as an emergency payment covering a wide variety of scenarios including yours. SW have however been working on addressing entitlement criteria, especially "you must be looking for work", and it's this particular rule that may exclude you if you return to full time college.

amd1982 wrote: »

Has anybody recieved a positive reply to their appeal against payment reduction ?? Still no reply here was told yesterday there are only 8 People working on rerate claims

Employee or Self Employed? I ask because I've see as many successful appeals as declines on another self employed thread, I can say the process from what I've seen is torturous and long, re self employed, they are now permitting 2019 earning figures as an option if they are better than 2018 which was the initial year they were working off, of course this penalised anyone say starting up in that year or anyone just developing their business as figures would have been low.

Employed should be more straight forward as that information is to hand albeit I've seen people say who have 2 jobs and only having one of those jobs count for purposes of checking earnings, not sure if this helps but it's a very protracted process and there's still a serious issue with back pay owed, those who got caught at the start of the payment seem to be still waiting for arrears, 5 months into this. Finally, anyone I've seen succeed have not apparently been paid arrears, basically they seem not to have a mechanism to fix this problem, for example, if your payment was reduced for 4 weeks, you prove you were entitled, they seem to be just reinstating payment but not the €150 pw lost over those 4 weeks, I wonder has anyone seen this??? or is it just some affected?

edwardkiley wrote: »

Does anyone know if social welfare monitor peoples bank accounts for people on the covid payment?

SW have no access to your account, the only situation whereby they request access is if there is a fraud investigation, even that requires a strict process and permissions by way of a formal request on foot of an investigation.

Other than that, if your on a standard SW payment that is means tested, you have to furnish a recent bank statement and this can be requested any amount of times

Dempo1 wrote:

There will be no new PUP payments or claims processed after the 17th September. As of now, it' seems the government intention is to only offer JSA/JSB benefits to new claims after the 17th September if you loose your job having returned. That may changed with the various flip flops but its doubtful.

Jesus, this could be a disaster, if we find out how bad things are upon reopening

Dempo1 wrote:

On top of this, I see more spin coming from SW yesterday with a bizzare claim 29,000 pup recepients have not confirmed their eligibility and may loose payment next week. I seriously doubt these figures, it's also interesting they are giving these people until Friday next to confirm but have actually neglected to tell the media that SW have now closed the confirm eligibility feature on my welfare and even have a customer notice to that affect. Its hard to be anything coming out of this department I'm afraid.

This could be an absolute disaster, covid payments should remain, even if people don't truly meet the criteria, the economy needs money, covid is providing it, our politicians and their advisers have to stop with this crappy economically conservative thinking, it's bloody dangerous, particularly right now

Dempo1 wrote:

Unfortunately it's been evident this government is intent on reducing the cost and the amount of people on this particular payment. I'm in the affected areas locked down again and have lost count of the amount of people I know let go again and having to sign back onto PUP, if further lockdowns occur they'll have to come up with some measures, can you imagine if Dublin locked down and there was no PUP, doesn't bare thinking about with its population.

Again, I think they ll be forced to rethink this very soon, as more cluster closures start occuring, they reacted quickly the first time with pup, with the increase, if the economy continues to slide, which I expect it to, this will probably force a rethink quite quickly, it's very interesting to see them spin on their naturally economically conservative default

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

They might not but revenue will have access and might flag it for investigation.

Could you expand on this comment, why do you assume revenue have access to any bank account? Again, whilst any state agency can apply for an order on foot of an investigation to access someone's bank account, to suggest revenue will have access as a blanket assumption is not quite factual. There are quite complex conditions attached in any request to access someone's bank account and it must be justified. One area for example is Revenue do have access to interest paid on savings etc and this can be crossed referenced against a claimant on a means tested SW benefit, but that only commences the process of investigation.

timetogo1 wrote: »

My missus didn't confirm her eligibility and lost it. They were sending notifications through the Welfare page. So if you don't log on and check it you won't see them. When she rang to see why it was stopped the lady couldn't say and said she'd ring back. A couple of days later she chased up and the guy on the phone said she should have filled in more forms on the Welfare page.
He said she should have been texted or emailed. She wasn't. So she's reapplied last week. No update on it yet.

Sorry to hear this, however notifications whilst sent to my welfare account also generates a text message and or email. Also the department stated yesterday that it's next week payments being stopped, they made no mention that anyone has had payment stopped yet because of this eligibility confirmation, I wonder has anyone else been affected by this? this said its hard to believe much coming out of the department at this stage, so many mixed messages, rule changes etc. I'm sure her appeal will be successful.

Dempo1 wrote: »

Sorry to hear this, however notifications whilst sent to my welfare account also generates a text message and or email. Also the department stated yesterday that it's next week payments being stopped, they made no mention that anyone has had payment stopped yet because of this eligibility confirmation, I wonder has anyone else been affected by this? this said its hard to believe much coming out of the department at this stage, so many mixed messages, rule changes etc. I'm sure her appeal will be successful.

She was self employed, had her own travel company so that's gone now so probably a bit different criteria.
She didn't receive text messages or emails and they confirmed the contact details they had when she rang them.
So log onto the welfare site anyway. Don't wait for a text. When she logged on there was a listing of notifications in one of the menu options (not super obvious but not hidden away). But as she didn't use the Welfare page as her day to day email program she didn't know to check it frequently.

Corholio wrote: »

A relative was getting Jobseekers and changed payments to be paid into bank a few months ago, now that the payments are back to 1 week does anybody know if they revert back to post office collection or if they will continue to be paid into the bank?

I'm presuming the lack of information about it on their websites means it will still be paid into the bank, but just wanted to check.

There's no payment method change, just when it's paid, Dept would contact anyone who's payment is being changed directly

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

They might not but revenue will have access and might flag it for investigation.

I don’t think revenue have access to your bank accounts - they have to ask you to provide those details. They certainly can see what SW payments you’re on (as that’s tied to your PPSN) but they can’t just look into your bank account - they need to ask you to provide those details first, as I understand it.

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

Has anyone heard if they are still cutting the PUP payments for essential travel abroad? I know a few saying they are terrified to go near an airport (even though they will be fully self-isolating when they return for the two weeks, green list or not) as a result of what when on a couple of weeks ago....

It’s so wrong to put this fear in people!

I presume it’s died down since all the media attention on it but just wanted to see if anyone else had heard anything on it?

They are permitting travel in green list countries only with no penalty re payment but they advise you tell them, 2 weeks permitted, however not to none green list countries as you have to self isolate for two weeks on return and won't be paid PUP or SW payments of any sort in this scenario

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

How can they enforce this if they aren’t told in advance though? As in, do they track people going through airports?

I don’t think anyone would do non essential travel to a country that was not on the green list at this stage!

It was then catching people at the airport a few weeks ago that caused major contraversy, they stopped payment on 84 people although they were appealed and apparently reinstated.

The problem arose firstly as No one knew and prior to a ministerial order passed late one night with no notice, SW recepients were always entitled to 2 weeks holidays without penalty. To get around this, they now only permit every SW recepient to travel to green list countries but will penalise anyone going to none green.

I'm guessing there's not as many checks at airports after the contraversy but its a risk not informing them as there's not that many flying so checks easy for them to do. They interview people in boarding Q"s but even that is open to questions as it's being suggested blanket screening of all passengers may be illegal, that said that's a debate for another day