140,000 welfare recipients to get double payment

Over 140,000 social welfare recipients are to receive a once-off double payment this month as part of the Government's improvements in the method of payment through the Electronic Fund Transfer system.

It brings about the end to the system where payments are made a week in arrears.

The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Seamus Brennan, today described it as a modernisation of the payment system for pensioners, carers, lone parents, and widows and widowers.