Fears grow over Christmas social welfare bonus

PENSIONERS, the unemployed, widows and people with disabilities face an anxious wait to see if they will get their traditional Christmas social welfare bonus this year because of government cutbacks.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs has not yet made a decision on whether its Christmas bonus payments will be made this year because of a deficit in State funds.

The payment has been made for the past eight years and was originally introduced in 1980. Last year, 1.3 million people received the bonus which amounted to a doubling of social welfare payments in the first week of December.