One-time extra Christmas bonus coming for low-income pensioners

Pensioners whose pensions don't exceed €396.18 per month will receive a one-time additional bonus of €12.74 with their regular Christmas bonus at the end of the year, according to an act on the provision of Christmas bonuses for some pensioners that came into effect as of Tuesday. Pensioners whose monthly pensions are below €198.09 are eligible for the largest possible sum of the variable Christmas bonus, which, together with the additional bonus, will equal €100. The Christmas bonus is expected to be paid to more people this year than in 2015, with its rate calculated from the national economy's average wage. Every pensioner whose monthly pension income doesn't exceed €529.80 will be eligible for the Christmas bonus, whereas the cap in 2015 was €514.80. Approximately 1.2 million pensioners will be eligible for the standard Christmas bonus this year, whereas 733,000 pensioners will also be eligible for the one-time additional bonus. The Christmas bonus was introduced by the first government of Robert Fico (2006-10) and paid for the first time in December 2006.