Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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553. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will review the position of those social welfare recipients who attend a training course with the national learning network or similar bodies and on returning to a jobseeker's allowance payment are not entitled to receive the Christmas bonus. [43391/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I was pleased to announce on Budget Day that an 85% Christmas Bonus will be paid this year to over 1.2 million long-term social welfare recipients, such as pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents and long-term jobseekers at a cost of €219 million.

Recipients of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) must be in receipt of the payment for a minimum of 15 months (391 days) in order to be eligible for the bonus. Long-term jobseekers are eligible for the bonus in recognition of their being wholly or mostly financially dependent on their welfare payment for income.

A person who participated in a National Learning Network (NLN) or other Solas/ETB training course and is in receipt of JA for a minimum of 391 days in the relevant week of the Bonus payment will automatically qualify for and receive the Bonus.

People with less than 391 days duration on JA may be entitled for the bonus if they have 15 months duration in total on eligible payments or schemes (including NLN courses). The time spent on the training course will be taken into account when determining eligibility for the Bonus.

As it is not possible to identify these cases automatically through the Department’s IT systems, it is necessary to deal with each case on an individual basis. In this regard, affected JA recipients should go to their Intreo office in order to establish their entitlement to a bonus payment. It should be noted that it is not possible for the Department to establish entitlement for the bonus in these cases until the first week of December.

Payment of the bonus to existing NLN or Solas/ETB participants is a matter for the Department of Education and Skills.