Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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620. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if persons on working family payments will receive a full Christmas bonus payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42011/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I was pleased to announce on Budget Day that the Christmas Bonus payment to long-term social welfare recipients will be fully restored to a 100% payment in December this year, and will be paid to all schemes that were eligible for the Bonus in previous years. Working Family Payment recipients were never eligible for the Bonus in the past and similar arrangements apply this year.

As a result of Budget 2019, Working Family Payment recipients may benefit from the introduction, in March 2019, of a new maintenance payments disregard of €95.23 per week (€4,952 per year) in respect of housing costs, with the balance of any maintenance assessed at 50%. For existing Working Family Payment recipients where this impacts, this can mean an increase in their weekly payments of up to €58 per week.

Working Family Payment recipients will also benefit from the improvements to taxation and USC rates introduced by my colleague, the Minister for Finance.