asked the Minister for Social Welfare why his Department has not yet arranged to pay children's allowances on different days so as to avoid the hardship of long queues of payees at post offices on particular days each month.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Children's Allowances.
50.
Children's allowance orders are dated for the first Tuesday in each month. It is not essential for the payee to attend at the post office of payment on that date, however, since an order may be cashed at any time up to three months after the due date. I am satisfied that this method is working satisfactorily and I do not propose to introduce any change.
Have the Department made any investigation of the actual days on which children's allowances are cashed? The indications are that the majority, certainly in urban areas, are cashed on the day on which they are first available because creditors are pressing in many cases and they have to be cashed on that day.
There is no doubt the majority are cashed on the day they are due for payment.
Is there any difficulty in making them cashable on different dates?
Does the Deputy want to make it impossible to have them all cashed on that date?
No, I want to make them cashable on different days so that those people will not have to stand for hours in queues.
They may be cashed any day within three months.
Would the Minister not consider having different days for the first day of encashment for different groups of people, possibly by the alphabet, so as to avoid the congestion and the queues that this gives rise to? It is a problem both for the officials of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and for the people concerned. Surely the Department of posts and Telegraphs could arrange a better system?
I think it is better to let the people make these decisions themselves.
I did not hear the Minister.
I think it is fairer to let the people make these decisions themselves rather than that I should say, merely because a person's name begins with a letter far down the alphabet, that he cannot cash it as early as other people.