State admits fault in delay to pensioner payments

THE Government has admitted its lack of preparation before introducing a new pension payment system that consigned thousands of pensioners to a 14-week wait for their social welfare payments.

Officials confirmed there are still 7,400 contributory pension claims being processed, 3,280 of which are by the people over 66 who are no longer in employment.

The massive backlog has been caused by the Department of Social and Family Affairs replacing its 20-year-old PENLIVE computer system with a new, improved version.