WELFARE groups are asking the Federal Government to clarify whether people who mistakenly receive the bonus payments announced on Tuesday will have to repay them.

Centrelink usually pursues welfare recipients if they are overpaid their entitlements regardless of whether the mistakes were the fault of the recipient or Centrelink.

There is some concern that people receiving the Youth Allowance may find it difficult to determine whether or not they are eligible for the bonus payment because their allowance depends on how much income they earned in a particular period.

But the Government is using Tuesday - the day it made the announcement - as the cut-off date.

The Government announced that more than 4 million people would receive cash bonuses as part of a strategy to keep the economy moving.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Family and Community Services, Jenny Macklin, said people who were eligible for the payment on October 14 would receive the benefit but people who qualified after that date would miss out.

Pensioners, holders of the Commonwealth Senior Health Card, veterans, war widows and people receiving the carers' payment will get $1400 each and couples will receive $2100.

People receiving the carers' allowance will receive $1000 for each eligible person in their care.

But the nation's 417,000 people receiving unemployment payments will not get anything.

Welfare groups criticised the decision not to give anything to unemployed people while offering the bonuses to self-funded retirees on incomes of up to $50,000 for single people and $80,000 for couples.

Ms Macklin yesterday defended the decision to give the $1400 bonus to self-funded retirees even though they were not pension recipients.

The bonus will be paid to those retirees who receive the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.

Ms Macklin said self-funded retirees were "under significant pressure right now with these very, very uncertain economic times".