A 100% Christmas bonus will be paid to those in receipt of Farm Assist payments and other state supports next week.

Senator Victor Boyhan said that the bonus will only be paid to those who have been getting an eligible payment for at least 12 months.

The payments will be made during the week beginning Monday, December 5.

Bonus payments

The supports which will receive a Christmas bonus next week are as follows:

  • Farm Assist;
  • Rural Social Scheme;
  • Back to Education Allowance;
  • Back to Work Enterprise Allowance;
  • Back to Work Family Dividend;
  • Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds;
  • Blind Pension;
  • Carer’s Allowance;
  • Carer’s Benefit;
  • Community Employment Scheme;
  • Daily Expenses Allowance;
  • Death Benefit Scheme;
  • Deserted Wife’s Benefit and Allowance;
  • Disability Allowance;
  • Disablement Benefit;
  • Domiciliary Care Allowance;
  • Guardian’s Payments (Contributory and Non-contributory);
  • Invalidity Pension;
  • Jobseeker’s Allowance;
  • Jobseeker’s Transitional Payment;
  • Magdalene Commission Scheme;
  • One-Parent Family Payment;
  • Partial Capacity Benefit;
  • State Pensions (Contributory and Non-contributory);
  • Supplementary Welfare Allowance;
  • Tús;
  • Widow’s/Widower’s/Surviving Civil Partner’s Pensions (Contributory and Non-contributory).

Farm Assist

Just over 5,00 low-income farmers across the country qualified for the Farm Assist payment last year, according to the Department of Social Protection.

Last year, 4,549 men and 455 women received the means-tested social welfare payment.

The data shows that 4,819 recipients were Irish nationals, 149 had UK nationality, 25 were from EU countries and 11 were listed as other nationalities.

Donegal was the county with the highest number of Farm Assist recipients at 979, which is nearly a fifth of the total number of recipients. 733 farmers in Mayo got the payment, followed by 485 in Galway.