Attached please find a copy of the Covid 19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment Form. This form should be completed by employees and submitted by post to Social Welfare where the employee is unable to make an online application for payment through MyGov.ie.

Covid 19 Social Welfare Application form for the Unemployed

The update received from Social Welfare in respect of the Covid-19 Emergency Payments are as follows:

Full-Time Staff

• Full entitlement to the payment of €203 per week
• If the employer has the cashflow to make this payment to staff, the employer will receive full rebate from Social Welfare albeit the timeline for receipt of this rebate is unknown at present.
• NB -  Where the employer is making the payment to staff – this form should NOT be completed or submitted by the employee to Social Welfare
• This emergency payment is only in place for 6 weeks. If the temporary lay-off is likely to exceed this, the employees will need to apply for job-seekers benefit.

Part-Time Staff

• Part-time staff are entitled to claim the payment of €203 per week.
• Where the part-time staff member is a full time student, they will also be entitled to the full €203 payment for this 6 week period. Students are not normally allowed to qualify for a payment but will in this instance.
• Where the employer opts to pay the staff member the €203 p/w and later apply for the rebate from Social Welfare please note the following 2 points below
• If wages are normally over €203 - no issue with receiving the rebate
• If wages are normally less than €203  - welfare have not provided any guidance on this matter to date so to ensure the employer is not out of pocket it may be best to get the employee to make the application for the payment themselves should welfare not honour the full €203 payment
• NB -     Where the employer is making the payment to staff – the application form should NOT be completed or submitted by the employee to Social Welfare
• Again, if the lay off period is likely to exceed 6 weeks, the employee should apply for job-seekers benefit.

Reduced Hours for employees

• If full time staff are put on a reduced working week they are entitled to make a claim for the emergency payment.
• Social welfare have advised that they are unable to decipher how much of the €203 payment they will receive as this is normally pro-rata against full working week, however it is likely that they will receive the full €203 payment in the interim.

Self-Employed

• Full entitlement to the payment of €203 per week
• The attached form should be completed and returned to Social Welfare.

There are a range of schemes available for employees from Social Welfare in relation to Covid-19, as follows:

• workers whose employers do not supplement/top-up the State Illness Benefit payment (COVID-19)
• workers who are requested to stay at home by their employer (COVID-19)
• workers who are laid off temporarily or put on to short time working (COVID-19)
• workers who need to take time off work to care for a person affected by COVID–19
• employees and the self-employed who have lost employment due to a downturn in economic activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
• If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or are medically certified to self-isolate as a result of COVID-19, you can apply for Illness Benefit for COVID-19 absences.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries.

Regards

Mark Ryan

Quintas

Tel 021 4641400 / email: mryan@quintas.ie