The Council of Ministers has amended the regulations for the Social Assistance Act to set clearer rules for the payments before Easter and Christmas, the government press office said.
The aid is targeted and goes to eight groups of people on social assistance.
It goes to people who get one-off, monthly or targeted payments under the Social Assistance Act, and to those who were given heating aid this heating season. Young people aged 18 to 21 who leave residential care and received aid for their initial needs are included too.
Families with children with permanent disabilities are also eligible, as are children who have no right to a survivor's pension from a dead parent. The aid also covers children who live with relatives, close family friends or foster families, war veterans, and war invalids and war victims who get aid from the Social Assistance Agency.
The holiday payment does not count as income. This applies when officials decide whether a person can get other social assistance and support, family benefits for children, support for people with disabilities or child protection.
The changes also affect young people who are starting out on their own. Until now, only people leaving a social service or an integrated health and social service for residential care got money to cover the costs of the move. From now on, young people who leave a foster family get it too.
The government says people and families entitled to social support will have more legal certainty and easier access to it, and the rules will apply the same way to everyone.
In March this year, the parliamentary committee on labour and social policy in the 51st National Assembly backed at first reading a bill to amend the Social Assistance Act. It provided for a new payment twice a year, just before Easter and Christmas.