![\"Shoppers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1_Belfast-Christmas-Shoppers-010_JK.jpg\")
Christmas shoppers in Belfast city centre(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)<\/p>\nPayment dates may be slightly different over the festive periodChristmas shoppers in Belfast city centre(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)<\/p>\n
The Department for Communities has confirmed benefit payment dates over the Christmas<\/a> and New Year’s period.<\/p>\n With Christmas just days away, and New Year’s Day following soon after, some have asked when they will be paid, and if it will change due to the bank holidays.<\/p>\n Benefit claimants in Northern Ireland<\/a> whose usual payments correspond with a bank holiday over the festive period, will receive the payment the day before it would normally be due.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Northern Ireland benefit scam warning as social media users offered ‘immediate money’<\/a>READ MORE: Northern Ireland cold weather payments explained amid snow and ice warning<\/a><\/p>\n A Department for Communities<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cIf a payment corresponds with a bank holiday over the festive period, the claimant will receive the payment before the day it would normally be due.<\/p>\n \u201cBenefits operate on different payment systems so depending on the specific benefit <\/a>and when the bank holiday falls, some claimants will receive payments earlier than others.\u201d<\/p>\n Some payments will be made earlier if they\u2019re due between 24 December 2025 and 2 January 2026. People have been advised to tell the office that pays your benefit if you do not get your payment on the day it\u2019s scheduled.<\/p>\n Northern Ireland Christmas benefit datesNorthern Ireland Child Benefit payment dates<\/p>\n There are different dates for Child Benefit payments over the festive period. If your payment is due on December 29, 2025, it will be received on December 30.<\/p>\n If your payment is due on December 30, 2025, it will be received on December 30.<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong>here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Payment dates may be slightly different over the festive periodChristmas shoppers in Belfast city centre(Image: Justin Kernoghan\/Belfast Live)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[345,35745,21747,81144,1144,16,15,2377],"class_list":{"0":"post-647500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-benefits","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-department-for-communities","11":"tag-in-the-know","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-universal-credit"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115761045537282014","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}