Increases in pensions are announced in the budget in December each year. This leaves my Department just four weeks to adjust its payments system before the increases are due to be paid in January.
Pensioners who receive their payments by electronic funds transfer, EFT, into their bank accounts or by electronic information transfer, ETT, at their local post office receive their increases on time and no arrears arise.
Pensioners who receive their payments by personalised payable orders, PPO, are treated differently. Because of the nature and the volume of payments involved, books containing 26 orders issue to them. In general these books are issued in bulk each April and October.
It would not be feasible to recall all of these books in December and to replace them with books containing orders with the increases. In order to minimise the delay in issuing the increases to these pensioners my Department issues a lump sum each February which covers the increase due for the period January to April.
Because of the large variety of rates which are paid to different pensioners, it is not possible to provide a detailed breakdown of the components that make up the total amount of back money paid in each individual case.
However, each December my Department issues a press release in which details of the social welfare increases are announced. Information is also included of how the increases will be paid in the case of our customers.
My Department has a policy of reviewing procedures on an ongoing basis to identify potential for improvement. In this regard, the existing arrangements for payment of budget arrears to pensioners using the PPO book payment method are being kept under review.