Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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45. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason when a person requests a form for change of social welfare payment details, the only form available DIR PMT 1 is a direct payment form into a financial institution, which does not give the option for the post office. [44474/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of Social Protection is a key player in the payment services sector in Ireland with over 84 million payments issued to clients in 2013. Form DIR PMT 1 is available online and on request to clients already in receipt of certain welfare payments who wish to either:

- change their account details, or

- change from a cash or cheque payment to be paid directly into an account.

The form seeks various details from the client in relation to their account, including the BIC and IBAN codes which identify the account in a financial institution into which the payment should to be lodged. The BIC code can be up to 12 alphanumeric characters long and the IBAN up to 34 alphanumeric characters in length. The complete set of data is required to ensure welfare payments are lodged to the correct account. This form helps clients to provide the full data set required.

By comparison, such a comprehensive data set is not required where a client wishes to amend their payment method to receive their payment in cash at the post office. In such instances the Department requires the client to notify them in writing of the relevant post office details. No individual account details are required.