Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The current range of payment options offered by the Department to customers includes payment at a local post office, or to a bank or building society account, or certain credit unions that have been authorised by the banking and credit union regulators.

Other than jobseekers, customers can opt for a payment method having regard to their own personal circumstances. The Department administers a variety of schemes which have a weekly and monthly payment cycle. For operational reasons and to facilitate the distribution of payments through the post office network, each scheme is assigned a day of the week for payment. These measures ensure that payments to be distributed through post offices are evenly spread across the week. A person can collect their payment on the due date or within a number of days thereafter.

Of the 1.4 million customers paid each week, over 725,000 - some 51% of them - are paid at a post office on various days throughout the week. A further 81,000 collect their early child care supplement on the third Monday of each month, and 252,000 customers collect their child benefit payment on the first Tuesday of each month. When new schemes are introduced, such as early child care supplement or customers move from cheque to electronic payments, care is taken to ensure that the day assigned does not unduly impact on existing arrangements at post offices.

As the numbers claiming social welfare increase significantly, the Department must ensure that strict controls are in place in order to prevent fraud and abuse. Staff in post offices are required to satisfy themselves that they are making payment to the person entitled to receive that payment. This has generally been done through signature verification. The introduction of photo identification for those of working age, such as jobseekers and lone parents, is designed to strengthen security measures in order to prevent abuse of the social welfare system. Post office staff can ask for photo identification and if there are any difficulties with the identification being produced they can alert investigators in the Department.

The Department is aware that a small number of post offices are experiencing long queues at certain times of the day. This is under review by An Post which is responsible for the post office network and the operation of individual post offices, including security. I am satisfied with the measures being taken in post offices to ensure that the correct payment is being made to the right person, and that customers are not unduly inconvenienced while collecting payments in post offices.

See this speech in context