John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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658. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason for recent issues experienced by persons who use the household budget service in which deductions automatically applied and lodged into their household budget account did not happen; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50375/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Household Budget Service is operated by An Post on behalf of my Department. The facility allows participants to have regular amounts deducted from their social welfare payments which then go towards paying various household bills or rents or to repay certain loans to credit unions.

Social welfare recipients wishing to avail of the Household Budget Service apply to An Post to use the facility. Deductions are managed by An Post and are forwarded to the appropriate utility companies, local authorities/housing bodies or credit unions at no cost to the customer or to my Department.

For payments made to customers on Friday 2 and Wednesday 7 November, there was a technical issue with the payment files sent from the Department to An Post. Consequently An Post were unable to apply the automatic household budget deduction for some Social Welfare recipients. Instead these customers received their full payment amount.

As soon as my Department became aware of the technical problem, remedial work was undertaken and the issue resolved. There has been no reoccurrence of the problem.

Customers whose Household Budget Service deductions were not applied did not incur any loss to their social welfare payments. However, they would need to make alternative arrangements with the relevant utility companies, local authorities / housing bodies and credit unions for repayment towards household bills for the week that the deductions were not made.

My Department wrote directly to every individual affected by this technical issue apologising for the inconvenience caused to them and also to ensure that everyone affected was aware that the weekly deduction had not been made so that they could make any necessary arrangements.

I regret the inconvenience caused to the social welfare recipients affected by this technical failure.