My Department is taking all necessary measures, in line with the advice of the Department of Health, HSE and Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), to respond to the significant challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In order to comply with social distancing requirements, the Department has introduced fortnightly payments instead of weekly. The purpose of this change is to minimise the need for people to attend and queue in banks or post offices to collect payments and to help people restrict their movements to essential activities only.
In addition, alternative payment arrangements, such as the option to have one’s payment made directly into a bank account by EFT, are accommodated at the request of a customer. An Post has been kept informed of this initiative.