Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe, has called on Social Protection Minister, Regina Doherty, to ensure that her Department carry’s out a thorough investigation into social welfare payment delays. The Sinn Féin TD described the payments as vital to families and individuals and said that even the slightest delay would impact heavily on recipients.

Teachta Crowe said:

“Last week saw a widespread delay of numerous social welfare payments to people right across the State with Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank, EBS, and An Post customers all being affected.

“I understand that Jobseekers payments, Disability Allowance, Illness Benefit, Working Family Payment, and Child Benefit are among the payments which did not appear in certain bank accounts last week. This caused widespread distress to people and families right across the State. The payments are vital to families and individuals and even the slightest delay will impact heavily on recipients, who rely on it for the basics in life.

“While the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in their online update to customers have stated that they ‘will monitor the issue’, this falls far short of what is actually needed to ensure that this event does not happen again.

“I am calling on Minister Doherty to instruct her Department to go beyond monitoring and instead, carry out a thorough investigation of this incident.

“We cannot allow this issue to reoccur, putting some of our most vulnerable citizens in dire straits not knowing when they will receive their respective payments that are so vital in their lives.”

ENDS