Almost 33,700 people in Kerry get pandemic-related social welfare payments

Almost 33,700 people in Kerry have received at least one pandemic related social welfare payment since its introduction.

The Department of Social Protection has released details of how many people got the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and Enhanced Illness Benefit.

The department says 30,457 people in Kerry got at least one Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) since it was introduced.

The week of May 4^th saw the highest level of PUP being paid in Kerry with 22,217 recipients.

The latest figure for the week up to March 16^th, shows 17,665 people in the county got PUP.

315 people in Kerry informed the department they were closing their PUP payment this week and returning to work; that’s up from 298 the previous week.

3,235 people in the county have got the medically certified Enhanced Illness Benefit due to having COVID-19 or self-isolating continues to rise since it was introduced.

On the week up to March 11^th, 48 people in Kerry were getting this payment.