Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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215. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to change the criteria whereby a person that has means included in their social welfare calculation payment does not qualify for the Christmas bonus; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48264/17]

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.

The bonus is paid as an increase to a recipient’s weekly payment in the relevant week. The bonus is not a payment in its own right. Rather, it forms an integral part of the relevant social welfare payment during the particular week in which the bonus is paid, in the same way as, for instance, increases in certain weekly social welfare payments where the person is living alone or has attained the age of 80 years.

The amount of the bonus in the case of recipients of long-term social welfare payments is 85% of the weekly payment (including payments where means have been assessed) in the relevant week in late November or early December 2017, depending on the scheme concerned, subject to a minimum payment of €20.

There are no plans to change the criteria for payment of the Christmas Bonus.