Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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193. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she plans to return any social welfare payments to a weekly basis. [27706/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Fortnightly payments were introduced by my Department to assist with social distancing measures in accordance with public health guidelines.

While some welfare schemes have reverted to a weekly payment pattern, fortnightly payments have been retained for a number of schemes, including Disability, Pensions and Carers’ payments.  These schemes mainly involve payments to people who are more likely to be medically vulnerable, including those who are over the age of 70 or their care-givers.

Within any particular scheme, it is not possible to introduce different payment cycles for different individuals or for different categories of individual.  All payments on each scheme, whether by collecting cash at the post office or depositing money directly into someone’s bank account, have to be processed in the same way.

The frequency of payments which are remaining on a fortnightly pattern is being kept under review.

I would emphasise that, where a person encounters financial difficulty, they can contact the local community welfare service for assistance or can seek advice and support from the Money Advice and Budgeting Service.