This week 477,665 people are set to receive the Pandemic Unemployment Payment - a decrease of 3,666 over the last week, according to the Department of Social Protection.
This figure does not include a further 188,543 people who were recorded on the Live Register at the end of January. In total, over 666,000 workers are currently entirely reliant on the state for income support.
This week's payments will cost €143.3m. Over 10,000 workers closed their PUP claims to return to work over the last seven days.
The counties with the highest numbers of PUP claims are Dublin (148,879), followed by Cork (48,658), and Galway (25,496). Meanwhile 4,700 people are currently receiving the Covid-19 Enhanced Illness Benefit. Latest coronavirus