{"id":199951,"date":"2025-11-25T20:25:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/199951\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T20:25:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T20:25:12","slug":"christmas-bonus-date-confirmed-but-some-social-welfare-recipients-will-miss-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/199951\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Bonus date confirmed but some social welfare recipients will miss out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2025 Christmas Bonus is due to be paid next week to around 1.5 million long term social welfare recipients, but some on certain schemes will not qualify.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/2_euro-money-notes.jpg\" alt=\"Euro money notes in a red envelope (file photo)\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Euro money notes in a red envelope (file photo)(Image: DPA\/PA Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The long-awaited Christmas Bonus for <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/social-welfare\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">social welfare recipients <\/a>is set to be paid within days &#8211; but not everyone will qualify for the festive boost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The payment was confirmed as part of<a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/the-budget\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Budget 2026 <\/a>in October and is expected to benefit around 1.5 million long-term welfare recipients. It will be paid at the usual rate of 100 per cent of a person&#8217;s weekly payment, costing the state around \u20ac370 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">While the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/department-of-social-protection\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Department of Social Protection<\/a> has not yet announced the exact date, it did confirm: &#8220;The Christmas Bonus will be paid in December 2025 to almost 1.5 million long-term social welfare recipients.&#8221; Based on previous years, eligible recipients can expect the extra payment to arrive during the week starting Monday, December 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">However, not everyone receiving a social welfare payment will get the bonus. The once off December top up only goes to people on long-term and qualifying schemes, meaning those on short-term jobseeker&#8217;s payments or new benefit claims may miss out. <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/child-benefit\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Child Benefit <\/a>and the Fuel Allowance also do not qualify for the<a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/christmas\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Christmas Bonus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">Below is the full list of 29 social welfare payments that will qualify for the 2025 Christmas Bonus:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"UnorderedList_unordered-list__gzblI\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"unordered-list\" publication=\"irishmirror\">\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Back to Education Allowance &#8211; people coming from jobseeker&#8217;s payments need to be getting the Allowance for at least 12 months (312 days), but you may be able to use your time on your jobseeker&#8217;s payment to help you qualify.<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Back to Work Enterprise Allowance &#8211; people coming from jobseeker&#8217;s payments need to be getting the Allowance for at least 12 months (312 days), but you may be able to use time on jobseeker&#8217;s payment to help you qualify<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Back to Work Family Dividend<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Blind Pension<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Carer&#8217;s Allowance and Carer&#8217;s Benefit (including half-rate Carer&#8217;s Allowance)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Community Employment<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Deserted Wife&#8217;s Allowance and Deserted Wife&#8217;s Benefit<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Daily Expenses Allowance for 12 months or more<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Disability Allowance<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Disablement Benefit<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Domiciliary Care Allowance<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Farm Assist<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Guardian&#8217;s Payment (Contributory) and (Non-Contributory)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Illness Benefit for 12 months or more<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Invalidity Pension<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Job Initiative Scheme<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Jobseeker&#8217;s Allowance for 12 months (312 days or more)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Jobseeker&#8217;s Transitional payment<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Magdalene Commission Scheme<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Death Benefit Scheme (under the Occupational Injuries Scheme)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">One-Parent Family Payment<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Partial Capacity Benefit<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Rural Social Scheme<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">State Pension (Contributory) and State Pension (Non-Contributory)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Supplementary Welfare Allowance for 12 months (364 days or more)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">T\u00fas<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Bereaved Partner&#8217;s Pension (Contributory) and (Non-Contributory)<\/li>\n<li class=\"sc-700e1ff3-0 VljCu\">Work Placement Experience Programme (if your primary payment is a qualifying social welfare payment)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">Other measures announced alongside the Christmas Bonus include a \u20ac10 weekly increase across core social welfare payments from January 2026, a rise in the income disregard for Carer&#8217;s Allowance and an increase of \u20ac20 in the Domiciliary Care Allowance, bringing it to \u20ac380 per month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">The <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/schools\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance <\/a>will now extend to two and three year olds, while the Fuel Allowance threshold has been widened to include Working Family Payment recipients, and the weekly rate rises from \u20ac33 to \u20ac38.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\">Speaking about the package, Minister for Social Protection <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/all-about\/dara-calleary\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dara Calleary<\/a> said: &#8220;I believe that the measures I am announcing today &#8211; with a total value of over \u20ac1.15 billion &#8211; will make a huge difference to the lives of the people we serve and, through them to the communities, in which we all live.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"irishmirror\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: <\/strong><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=39e53cb8-b266-4e33-8d00-e9f7a38f420c&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Sign up hereLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sign up here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 Christmas Bonus is due to be paid next week to around 1.5 million long term social&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,39729,16838,21560,20812,18,19,17,4172,39431,19837],"class_list":{"0":"post-199951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-child-benefit","10":"tag-christmas","11":"tag-dara-calleary","12":"tag-department-of-social-protection","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-schools","17":"tag-social-welfare","18":"tag-the-budget"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115612216780903655","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}