Burton to dole out Christmas bonus at cut rate of 25%

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton may not have got to play Santa Claus yesterday but she did manage a role as one of his elves by restoring a small portion of the long-lamented Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients.

Scrapped by the last government in the emergency budget of April 2009, the bonus, which had been granted to long-term welfare recipients since 1980, will partly return in the early weeks of this December.

The bonus had meant welfare recipients received a double payment in the weeks running up to Christmas to help ease the costs of the festive period. It makes its return in the form of a 25% top-up this year which will benefit more than 1.16 million people at a total cost of €63.5m.