TAOISEACH LEO Varadkar has announced plans to cut the current Covid-19 unemployment payment as he claims some people are milking the system.
The current scheme sees people being paid a total of €350 a week if they have been temporarily laid off from work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While this has been a lifeline for many, Mr Varadkar says he has been told some people are refusing to return to work because the Covid-19 payment is more than they would be making usually.
The Fine Gael leader was speaking on the Dermot and Dave Show on radio station Today FM where he said that the scheme would be replaced by wage subsidies to encourage people to go back to work.
"There are in fact people making more on the Covid payments than they were working part-time," Mr Varadkar said, "and some employers are actually telling us that it’s hard to get people to go back to work because of that."
Admitting that it wouldn't be possible to cut the Covid-19 payments just yet "because people have to be given the opportunity to return to work and there are lots of businesses that still won’t be able to reopen at the middle of June", the Taoiseach said the scheme would be extended but he "can't say exactly for how long".
Some people are refusing to return to work as they are making more money on the Covid-19 payment scheme, Leo Varadkar has claimed.“One thing we will probably extend is the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) longer than the (Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP)," he continued.
"Because we’ll be encouraging employers to take people back on, to transition them from the pandemic payment to the wage subsidy scheme, so you know, when you’re offered your job back, if you refuse it you actually lose your pandemic unemployment payment, but your employer will be able to take you back on the wage subsidy scheme so we will pay most of the wages for the employer.
"That's all about getting people back to work," he concluded.
