Christmas Bonus Welfare Payments 2026

The double payment lands in the week of 7 December, and most weekly rates rise by €10 from January. Here are the dates, the new rates and the rules on who qualifies.

If you get a long-term social welfare payment, an extra week's money is due in the week starting Monday 7 December 2026. That is the Christmas Bonus. Then, from January 2027, most weekly payments go up by €10.

The Christmas Bonus is a double week

The Christmas Bonus is a once-off extra payment worth 100% of your normal weekly rate. So you get two weeks' money in one week. You do not need to apply.

It is paid automatically, on the same day as your usual payment. The smallest bonus is €20. If you get two qualifying payments, you get a bonus on each one.

For context, last year's bonus came a week earlier. In 2025, it was paid in the week beginning 1 December, to about 1.5 million people, at a cost of €370 million.

Who qualifies for the bonus

The bonus goes to people on long-term payments. These include:

• State Pension (Contributory) and State Pension (Non-Contributory)
• Carer's Allowance (including half-rate) and Carer's Benefit
• Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Blind Pension and Domiciliary Care Allowance
• One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment
• Farm Assist, Community Employment, Tús and the Rural Social Scheme
• Jobseeker's Allowance and Illness Benefit, after 12 months

Some payments only qualify once you have been on them for a while. For Jobseeker's Allowance, you need 12 months, which means 312 days or more. Supplementary Welfare Allowance needs 364 days or more.

Fuel Allowance does not get a bonus. The full list of qualifying payments is on Citizens Information.

€10 more a week from January 2027

In Budget 2027, the Government announced a €10 rise in most core weekly payments from January 2027. People on reduced rates get a smaller, matching rise.

So does an Increase for a Qualified Adult. That is extra money paid for a dependent spouse or partner.

Child Benefit stays at €140

Child Benefit is not changing. It stays at €140 per child per month in 2027. The Department's Budget 2027 press release does not mention a double Child Benefit payment.

Families on a weekly welfare payment get more through the Child Support Payment, which is extra money for each child. It goes from €58 to €64 for children under 12, and from €78 to €84 for children aged 12 and over.

Working Family Payment is a weekly top-up for low-paid workers with children. For a family with one child, the income limit rises from €765 to €795 a week. With two children, it rises from €866 to €896.

Fuel Allowance and Living Alone go up

The 2026/27 Fuel Allowance season began in the week of 28 September 2026. It runs for 28 weeks, to around April. The rate is €38 a week until the January rise.

Some people take Fuel Allowance as two lump sums instead. The first, of €532, was paid in the week of 28 September. The second is due in January 2027.

The income limit for a single person aged 66 or over rises from €534 to €640.80 a week. So more single people aged 66 or over may qualify.

The Living Alone Increase is extra money for people who live on their own. It goes up by €3 a week.

One new lump sum, for disabled people

Budget 2027 has a first-ever €500 Cost of Disability Payment, paid in 2027. It is for people on Blind Pension, Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension or Partial Capacity Benefit. About 240,000 people will get it.

The payment date has not been announced. The Department's press release lists no general cost-of-living lump sum for 2027.

“This is not a financial cost rather it is an investment in our social fabric.”— Dara Calleary, Minister for Social Protection, Budget 2027 press release, 6 October 2026

Carers: same grant, more room to earn

The Carer's Support Grant stays at €2,000 in 2027. It is paid automatically in June, usually on the first Thursday. In 2026 it was paid on Thursday 4 June.

If that pattern holds, the 2027 grant would be paid on Thursday 3 June 2027. The Department has not confirmed this date yet.

From July 2027, the Carer's Allowance income disregard rises. That is the amount of household income not counted in the means test. It goes from €1,000 to €1,150 a week for a single person, and from €2,000 to €2,300 for a couple.

Christmas payment dates for 2026 are not out yet

When a bank holiday falls on your payment day, the Department pays early. It usually publishes Christmas payment dates in early December. In 2025, gov.ie published them on 3 December.

• 2025: payments due 15 to 19 December were not changed
• 2025: payments due 22 to 26 December were paid in the week starting 15 December
• 2025: the payment due 1 January 2026 was paid on 31 December 2025

The 2026 dates may differ. Check gov.ie in early December.