Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 354: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her views on altering the day for payment of unemployment benefits at post offices from a Friday, having regard to the large volume of people attending post offices at the same time, resulting in inconvenience and delay for those persons receiving benefit; and if the matter of another day might be discussed. [16623/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department administers a variety of schemes which have weekly and monthly payment cycles. For operational and administrative reasons, and to facilitate the distribution of payments through the Post Office network, each scheme is assigned a day of the week for payment. This ensures that payments to be distributed through Post Offices are evenly spread across the week.

The majority of Job seekers benefit and allowance payments are paid on Monday and Wednesday with a small number being paid on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. A person can collect their payment on the due date or within a number of days thereafter. The post office network, and the operation of any individual post office, is a matter for An Post.