Double Christmas bonus payments will be made to another 17,500 people on sickness benefit this year, Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys will announce today .
The Minister will ask for the bumper week’s benefit to be paid to another category of welfare recipients that never got it before, those on illness benefit for 12 months or longer.
The standard rate of illness benefit, for those earning more than €300 a week gross, is €208, which means the benefit will be worth €416 in Christmas bonus week.
