A Christmas Bonus of £10 is paid to the recipients of long term benefit in the United Kingdom.
This was established by the Pensioners and Family Income Supplement Payments Act 1972 as a one off payment which was repeated by the Heath government in 1973 and 1974. It was then repeated by the Labour Government in 1977 and 1978. The subsequent Pensioners' Payments and Social Security Act of 1979 established it permanently, although the amount has never been uprated.
To qualify a person must be present or ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, any European Economic Area country, or Switzerland during the qualifying week, normally the first full week of December, and get at least one of the following benefits in that week:
The list of qualifying benefits has been extended since the benefit was first introduced.