Christmas bonus

First things first

It's the Mirror, an absolute rag that thrives on scaremongering.

Secondly the Christmas Bonus has absolutely nothing to do with wether a person is in receipt of fuel allowance. This allowance does not form part of the core entitlement to a specific social welfare payment and is only paid for part of the year.

The Christmas Bonus is generally paid to most recipients of SW payments regardless if they are in receipt of fuel allowance, however some payments such as illness benefit may not get the Bonus (open to correction)

Last year those on PUP got the bonus, I'm not aware of any announcements on this year's Christmas Bonus, so it's a wait and see.

If SW decide to exclude those on fuel allowance it will be the 1st time and would be very controversial.

I don't know anything about those on rent allowance and Christmas bonus.

It doesn't go to people on Jobseekers Benefit which is a load of sheite..."thou shalt not get the bonus if you have done a days work in your life recently".

Hi there,

Yes, I was aware some payments don't qualify which is very unfair, being entitled to JSB suggests a person has worked and earned the entitlement. Those on Illness benefit also don't qualify nor do they for fuel Allowance etc.

Click bait I reckon, dreadful rag , yes I meant to mention Fuel allowance payment itself no subject to the Bonus 😏

The Christmas Bonus was never ever paid out to any JB receiver.

What some media are getting wrong is the difference between JB and JA. Mixing up benefit with allowance is a common mistake.

JA receivers are only getting the Christmas Bonus if they are in receipt of the payment for more than 104 days. Anyone with less days spent on JA is getting nothing.

JB is in general regarded as a short term payment- no matter if you are on it for more than 104 days.

The devil is always in the detail- but that is of no interest anymore in a fast moving world where journalists are getting paid for quantity and not for quality anymore.

Probably already been said but they at the Mirror probably misparaphrased what the source info said, It probably said that the money paid as Xmas bonus is the same as 100% of a weekly payment excluding the fuel allowance and the rent allowance. So transcriber is a bit thick in the info they're passing on.

I noticed that when I was looking for when the bonus happened

Usually seems to turn up around the 2nd week of December.

Next week

They do seem indeed make an exception this year.

Quote:

As an exceptional measure this year, people who are receiving PUP or another Jobseeker’s payment for four months or longer will receive the Bonus. There are many individuals and families who have lost their job or business as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and have been out of work for several months now. The Bonus will help to ease the financial burden on them at this very difficult time.

I cannot comment on last years figures. As I said above- the devil is in the detail. There could already have been an exception last year as well. Covid changed a lot of things.

Looking at your link again ( Social Welfare Christmas Bonus 2021 - Money Guide Ireland )

it says "some cases of JB". If you go into the detail, you find that those "some cases" are persons who make a casual claim- they are working for some days- and sign on for the rest of the week. This makes them different to the the traditional JB recipient, who signs on for all days.

Fact is that JB recipients in general still do not qualify for CB- regardless of the time spent on the sheme. Except in very limited circumstances.

Fact is that in the past nobody on JB got any CB.

Yeah, Mon 6th Dec on

I can see it has now been expressly announced that those on Jobseekers Benefit for 12 months will be entitled to the bonus. I imagine they mean those who were on a qualifying payment before they were switched seeing as you can't get JSB for a year?

Mrs Thatcher introduced the £10 Christmas bonus. She brought a bag of groceries from the CO-OP in to the Dispatch Box in the House of Commons to demonstrate how much it would buy.

ah Maggie. There’ll never be another.

It's probably because CB is awarded to all parents regardless of income as opposed to those on low income only. For example, an unemployed couple with three children will get €420 per month, but a couple of registered specialist surgeons with three children will also get it. Couldn't afford to give everyone double!

Why give the unemployed childless couple a bonus and not the modestly earning working family with kids who have been working all year and face particular additional expenses at Christmas. The working family on modest wages will have some difficult choices to make

They will of course. The unemployed couple is getting an additional payment to help with Christmas expenses though, the working family is not.

The low income working couple if they have dependent kids should be in receipt of WFP.

Pity they wouldn't choose to get off their holes and get a job.

Not everybody is in a position to secure a job because there are no jobs available in their area. That's why you have unemployed people.

Your post suggests that all unemployed are lazy and that they are themselves at fault. Such a suggestion is clearly very nasty!