When the coronavirus struck, singer Mary Coughlan lost almost all her pre-booked gigs - including Glastonbury. The €350 a week Covid-Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) was a lifesaver - but today, the Government has cut her benefit to €203.
She has been told that her self-employed income from 2018, when she earned very little as she was working on a play, indicated she was earning less than €200 a week.
Because of that, she is now lost €147 per week in welfare - money she says she simply cannot afford as she is "penniless". But Ms Coughlan is just one of over 110,000 PUP claimants in this position today.
Up to now, all claimants received €350 a week regardless of their earning before the pandemic - which meant some part time lower paid