Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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359. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a person who has been out of work since March 2020 owing to Covid 19, has been in receipt of the temporary wage subsidy scheme, employment wage subsidy scheme and the pandemic unemployment payment, consecutively qualifies for the Christmas bonus; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43068/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Last week, my Department paid €390 million in a Christmas Bonus to some 1.6 million people who are receiving long-term weekly welfare payments.

The Christmas Bonus is paid to recipients of social welfare payments, such as pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents and long-term unemployed people in recognition of their long-term financial dependence on their social welfare payment for all or most of their income.

In recognition of the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on employment levels and the sudden financial impact on individuals, the Bonus was paid this year, on an exceptional basis, to people who have been in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) for a period of four months or more and were in payment on the date the Bonus is paid. It was also be paid to people on jobseeker payments who have been in receipt of these payments for four months or more. Periods on jobseeker payments and PUP can be combined.

The decision to reduce the time from 15 months to four to become eligible for the Bonus was made to ensure that it was paid to those who have been made unemployed for a significant period since the first shutdown of businesses, and also to reflect the exceptional situation brought about by the pandemic.

The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) , and its predecessor the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), were both designed to provide economy-wide enterprise supports by preserving the link between employee and employer and to support firm viability through an unprecedented enterprise environment. The funding for both schemes was directed through the Vote of the Department of Social Protection as a mechanism to enable Revenue to pay the subsidies to employers. However, these subsidies are not social welfare payments to individual customers.

Accordingly, entitlement to a Christmas Bonus payment to PUP recipients was based on periods in receipt of PUP or other qualifying payments.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy