Call for pensioners to receive direct debit pension arrears

Age Action Ireland has called on the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs to reimburse pensioners who lose a week's money when they sign up for direct debit payments.

Under the current system, when a State pension is transferred from post office payment to direct debit it changes from being paid in advance to being paid on a back-week system. As a result, the recipient loses a week's payment, which is only reimbursed after the person dies.

Gerard Scully, spokesman for Age Action Ireland, said the back-week system is a bureaucratic blip that has to be ironed out.

"The only way to get it [ the missing week] is to die and then the estate gets it," he said. "And when you apply for the pension you are not told that you are going to lose a week. That is very unfair."

He highlighted the closure of local post offices and said many pensioners would soon have no choice but to opt for direct debit.

Labour TD Eamon Gilmore called on Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan to bring the bank payment in line with the post office book payment as soon as possible.

"It is a financial disadvantage," he said. "And someone totally dependent on social welfare would find that hard."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs said they are aware of the anxiety the arrears payment causes some people.

"It was originally paid four weeks in arrears but over the last couple of years we have caught up," she said.

The spokeswoman said it would take additional funding in the form of a once-off payment from the Department of Finance in order to catch up on the payments and they were hoping the next budget would allow them to do that.