COVID-19 Income Supports - An Analysis of Recipients March 2020 to May 2021

Introduction

Since March 2020, the Government has introduced a range of measures to provide financial support to individuals and businesses who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This new report, ‘COVID-19 Income Supports: An Analysis of Recipients’, presents an analysis of the recipients on the main COVID-19 income supports that have been made available:

• The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is administered by the Department of Social Protection (DSP). It has been in place since March 2020 and is currently expected to continue until at least the end of June 2021.
• The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) was administered by the Revenue Commissioners. Payments under the scheme commenced on the week ending 28 March 2020 and the scheme was closed at the end of August 2020.
• The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) is also administered by the Revenue Commissioners and replaced the TWSS from 01 September 2020. There were a small number of EWSS claims in July and August 2020 in respect of newly hired or seasonally hired employees who were ineligible for the TWSS. The EWSS is currently expected to continue until at least 30 June 2021.

The aim of this Frontier Series is to provide insight into the recipients of the different COVID-19 income supports by demonstrating how the levels of recipients have changed over time and presenting the characteristics of the recipients of the different schemes. This is an example of the policy-relevant research projects the CSO are developing as part of its leadership role in the Irish Statistical System.

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