09 May 2022
Go to release: Live Register April 2022
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (09 May 2022) issued results from the Live Register in respect of April 2022. Please note that the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme has ended, final payments issued were in respect of the week ending Friday 25 March 2022. All PUP recipients have either transferred to a Jobseeker’s scheme or had their PUP claim closed, either because they did not apply for a jobseeker’s payment or they do not have an entitlement e.g. they are in receipt of another scheme payment, or are pending a decision on their jobseeker claim. The PUP detail, previously published in Table A2 of the Live Register release and PxStat series LRM20, is no longer available from March 2022. The monthly PUP scheme time series was published for the reference months March 2020 until February 2022.
Commenting on today’s publication, Morgan O’Donnell, CSO Statistician, said:
“The unadjusted Live Register total for April 2022 was 177,004. When seasonal effects are considered, the seasonally adjusted Live Register total for April 2022 was 177,100, which is a decrease of 3,900 persons from March 2022.”
Commenting on monthly estimates of the numbers being directly supported by the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), Morgan O’Donnell continued:
“The CSO have included monthly estimates of the number of persons being supported by the EWSS up to March 2022 in the Live Register release and in the Pxstat series LRM20. While the Live Register is a weekly scheme, the availability of the EWSS data depends on an employee’s pay frequency which could be weekly, fortnightly, every four weeks or monthly. Because of these differing pay frequencies, and the time it takes for employers to lodge payslip data with the Revenue Commissioners before it is made available to the CSO for dissemination purposes, there is a lag on the availability of the EWSS estimates in the same way there was for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) estimates in 2020.
Of the 263,770 persons currently estimated to have been directly supported by the EWSS in March 2022, 46.4% were male and 53.6% were female while 26.4% were aged under 25 and 73.6% were aged 25 years and over.
The total number of persons that were on the Live Register or who benefitted from the COVID-19 income supports (PUP, TWSS or EWSS) to March 2022 has also been made available today.
In March 2022, 436,056 persons were on the Live Register or were benefitting from the PUP, TWSS or the EWSS. Of those, 50.1% were male and 49.9% were female, while 19.8% were aged under 25 and 80.2% were aged 25 years and over. The number of persons supported by all schemes was down from the 907,800 recorded in March 2021. March 2022 is the current low point of the series, while February 2022 (466,745) is the next lowest point of the series. The current high point of the series was reached in April 2020 (1,179,449). The COVID-19 income support schemes were introduced in March 2020 and the first payment of the PUP referred to the week ending 22 March 2020, while the TWSS was first paid on 24 March 2020, but could relate to earlier payslips.”
Commenting on further weekly aggregates of the COVID-19 income supports, Morgan O’ Donnell added:
“Tables providing the breakdowns of the numbers on the Live Register or receiving the PUP each week from March 2020 through to the week ending 01 May 2022 by sex, age group, county and nationality grouping are being made available today. These tables also contain breakdowns of the number of people being directly supported by the EWSS and the estimated number of persons benefitting from the PUP, TWSS or EWSS up to the week ending 27 March 2022 (See PxStat).”
The PUP was administered by the Department of Social Protection (DSP). It was initially closed to new applicants from 08 July 2021. Under the Economic Recovery Plan, there was also a gradual reduction in rates from 07 September 2021 while the process of possible transition of PUP recipients to a jobseeker’s payment began on 26 October 2021. The scheme reopened for individuals, including the self-employed, who lost their employment between 07 December 2021 and 22 January 2022 following the introduction of COVID-19 related public health restrictions. The PUP scheme ended on 25 March 2022.
The TWSS was replaced by the EWSS from 01 September 2021. The EWSS ended for most businesses on 30 April 2022. For businesses directly impacted by the public health restrictions introduced in December 2021, the EWSS will end on 31 May 2022. There are some EWSS claims for July and August 2020 in respect of newly hired or seasonally hired employees who were ineligible for the TWSS. Both the TWSS and the EWSS schemes have been administered by the Revenue Commissioners who have provided TWSS and EWSS data to the CSO for statistical purposes and dissemination to users. Monthly and weekly estimates of the numbers being directly supported by the EWSS are included in PxStat tables published today.
The income support payments are not captured in the traditional methodology of the Live Register which is a historical series that includes the number of claimants for Jobseeker’s Benefit and Jobseeker’s Assistance (see the Information Note on Implications of COVID-19 on the Live Register and the Monthly Unemployment Estimates for more details).
It should be noted that DSP, where applicable, paid arrears to recipients of the PUP, to take account of the movement of people in and out of employment. The first arrears payment occurred on 01 December 2020. All PUP arrears paid were included in the week of the entitlement period, rather than the week of payment.
Morgan O'Donnell, Labour Market Analysis - (+353) 85 804 9155
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