26 March 2020
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has experienced unprecedented demand for income supports including the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment and Jobseeker payments since 13th March
Social Welfare by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
The level of demand equates to 10 months normal claim-load in just 10 working days.
The Department wishes to assure its customers that it is processing these claims as fast as possible and that staff have being working long-hours, over weekends and the bank holiday to ensure that claims are processed as quickly as possible.
The first Covid-19 related payments, for approximately 90% of claims received from 13th–19th March were issued last Friday, 20 March and were in customer’s bank accounts on Tuesday, 24 March.
Some payments did not go forward for various reasons. This is normal. For example, some claims may not have met eligibility criteria. Other payments may have been held back due an error with an IBAN or an inconsistency between PPS numbers. The Department is working very hard to resolve these issues and is contacting the customers concerned directly.
Again this week nearly all claims received since 19 March and up to close of business today (Thursday 26 March) will be processed for payment tomorrow, Friday and will be in customer’s bank accounts on Tuesday 31 March.
The Department is processing payments into Irish bank accounts and via the Post Office network only. We wish to reassure people that where they are entitled they will receive a payment from the Department as soon as possible. Should there be any issues with individual payments the Department will contact the claimants directly.
