asked the Minister for Labour the number of trainees who will qualify for the Christmas bonus this year; the number who will not qualify because they were on courses before August 1987; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Christmas Bonus.
82.
To date 708 AnCO trainees have qualified for payment of the Christmas bonus and AnCO inform me that they expect more trainees to prove eligibility over the next few days. An exact number cannot be given by AnCO as they are not the certifying agency.
The total number of AnCO trainees who are 18 and over, who started training before 17 August 1987 and are still in the system is 2,083. However, AnCO do not maintain records of the previous social welfare status of a trainee and cannot therefore estimate the proportion of those who would have previously been long term unemployed and would therefore have qualified for the Christmas bonus had they remained on the live register. These individuals would, however, be in receipt of allowances equivalent to the appropriate level of unemployment benefit, which is normally higher than their unemployment assistance entitlements.