A Galway senator has welcomed confirmation that the full Christmas Bonus will be paid to those receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment this year.
A total of €390 million will be be paid to Social Welfare recipients, with those in receipt of PUP for 17 weeks also entitled to the bonus.
It will be paid to over 1.6 million people across the country in the week beginning 7 December.
Welcoming the news, Senator Aisling Dolan said that due to the challenges of COVID-19, the Christmas bonus will also be paid to recipients of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
“This was confirmed to me by my colleague the Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, who has announced the details of the largest ever Christmas Bonus,” said the Fine Gael senator.
“As always, people on long term social welfare benefits such as pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and lone parents will receive the 100% Christmas bonus.
“Those who have been in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) continuously or otherwise – for at least 4 months (17 weeks) since March will also receive the Christmas Bonus this year.
“Minister Humphreys has also taken care to ensure that anyone returning to work next week as restrictions ease, will not be excluded from the Christmas Bonus.”
Any person in receipt of PUP for any one day from Friday 27 November to Thursday 3 December will still receive the Christmas Bonus provided they also meet the 17 week requirement.
This means anyone returning to work this Monday or Tuesday will still receive the Christmas Bonus as they worked at least one day during the said period.
“The same criteria is also being applied to those on Jobseeker’s payments, who in previous years would have only received the Bonus if they had been out of work for at least 15 months”, Senator Dolan added.
