In response to the ongoing cost of living pressures, my Department will spend approximately €1.2 billion in social welfare measures this year to help individuals and families through this difficult period.
Traditionally, Illness Benefit was not a qualifying payment for the Christmas Bonus as Illness Benefit is a scheme which, by its nature, is a short-term social welfare scheme. It has a high degree of churn with people coming onto the scheme and moving off every week, often with very short duration claims. The average duration of a claim for Illness Benefit is only 6 days.
However, I appreciate that individual circumstances can vary from case to case so I asked my officials to examine this issue in respect of people who are in receipt of Illness Benefit for longer periods of time and I am pleased to confirm that, for the first time, people who have been on Illness Benefit for 12 months or longer will qualify for this year's Christmas Bonus.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.