Postmasters seek suspension of transfer to electronic welfare payments

Postmasters will today ask the Government to suspend the planned migration of welfare payments from cash to electronic transfer until the future of post offices is clearly laid out.

With the Department of Social Protection moving towards the elimination of cash payments by 2017, the Irish Postmasters’ Union wants the post offices to play a role in how the electronic transfers are managed.

It says 50% of current welfare transactions take place via cash payment and overall that activity accounts for 30% of post office business. The union pointed to a recent Grant Thornton report which concluded that the move to electronic transfer would result in 550 of the country’s 1,100 post offices closing.