NWCI and other NGOs call for the Christmas bonus to social welfare recipients to be restored
Published: Monday, December 09, 2013
NWCI, along with a number of TDs and non-governmental organisations have called for the Christmas bonus to social welfare recipients to be restored, saying it would be a “dividend to the most vulnerable in our society” as Ireland exited the EU-IMF bailout and a “welcome boost for the struggling retail sector”.
As reported by Kitty Holland in the Irish Times, such a measure would mean an injection of €260 million into the economy in the run-up to Christmas and immediate financial help for 1.3 million people. The Christmas bonus, paid to long-term recipients of social welfare each December, was worth 100 per cent of their welfare payment. It was abolished in 2009.
NWCI, along with Age Action, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Focus Ireland, lone-parent group Open and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions last week called on Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton to restore the payment.