Sir, - We are pleased that the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs has announced that long-term recipients of social welfare payments will receive a full week's Christmas bonus this year.
Having read the brief report on this in your edition of October 9th, we were astounded that an unidentified writer had gone to the trouble of calculating the extra amount which a lone parent with four children will receive - especially as this example does not appear in the Minister's press release. It might interest your readers to know that only 3.5 per cent of one-parent families on a social welfare payment have four children. The majority - 62 per cent - have one child, and so they will receive an extra £92.70. - Yours, etc.,
Frances Byrne, Manager, One Parent Exchange and Network, Kilbarrack, Dublin 5.