John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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42. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to provide the option of having all social protection payments paid into the local post office network similar to what is available to the banking network. [11640/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department provides two main options for payment methods for its customers: payments direct to customer accounts in financial institutions or payments in cash at post offices. In a small proportion of cases, cheque payments are used for business purposes such as emergency payments or at the opening and closing of claims. Specifically in respect of cash payments at Post Offices, in 2015 my department made over 38 million such payments in cash at a cost of €54 million. These welfare payments through post offices are across all of the department’s major schemes: state pension, jobseekers, one parent family payments, widow/ers or survivors pensions, carers payments, disability payments and child benefit. I want to emphasise that for the vast majority of my department’s schemes the department’s customers are given the choice of what payment method they wish to receive their social welfare payment. The vast majority of new customers choose to have payments made directly into their accounts in financial institutions which reflects a societal trend towards payment by electronic funds transfer. For example, 83% of new Child Benefit customers and 70% of new State Pension customers chose this option in 2015.

Many of my department’s customers are in employment. My department’s focus must be on our customers and to this end my department’s policy is to make payments to in-work customers directly to accounts rather than customers being inconvenienced by two separate payment methods.

My department restricts customer choice in relation to some means tested schemes where the payment method may be restricted to payment by cash at post offices due to control measures required to verify identity before payment. One notable exception to this is the payment method of casual jobseekers customers who are in part-time employment and who are paid by electronic funds transfer in line with the policy on in-work customers that I just referred to.

The recent “Kerr Report” sets out the challenges that An Post and Postmasters face as they seek to ensure that the post office network remains relevant in the context of the inexorable shift towards electronic payments..

My department is engaging as appropriate with the Departments of Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources and Public, Expenditure and Reform in addressing the recommendations of the report.