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.
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A source close to the Minister last night told the Irish Mirror that she expects her ministerial colleagues at this morning’s Cabinet meeting to rubberstamp her proposal.
The Christmas Bonus, which represents a doubling of weekly payments, is due to be paid in early December.
It will benefit hundreds of thousands of pensioners, carers and people with disabilities and is the eighth lump sum payment made to support households with the cost of living.
Minister Humphreys is expected to tell Cabinet that while most people remain on Illness Benefit for a short period of time, there are currently around 17,500 people who are in receipt of the support for 12 months or more.
She will seek approval to make a double payment to this cohort as part of the roll-out of the Christmas Bonus in December, with payments starting from this Friday.
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