Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I was trying to find the section to bring this issue up in. It relates to the double payments, Christmas bonuses and that. A neighbour of mine went on jobseeker's allowance in November, but had previously been on supplementary welfare and carer's allowance for looking after his mother. He did not get the Christmas bonus. I submitted a question to the Minister, who reviewed the case and established that he was entitled to the Christmas bonus. I presume that initially, the Department decided he was not entitled to the bonus because he had not been receiving jobseeker's allowance for 312 days or whatever, but he had built up more than that on the other payments he was on. He did not get the double payment last week either so I have put a question in about that. If it is happening to him, I am sure it must be happening to other people. It does not just happen to one person. Is there some way that the Department can view the time a person is actually receiving payments? There definitely seems to be an anomaly around entitlements.