Some 144,000 older people, lone parents and carers will receive double payments worth up to €180 next week under changes to the timing of benefits payments.
Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan will move the electronic payment of pensions and other allowances forward so they coincide with over-the-counter payments.
This move, which will cost €25 million, will result in a double payment for thousands of welfare recipients between August 10th and 12th.
Under the changes a single old age contributory pensioner on the maximum rate will receive an additional payment of €179.30, while a single person on the maximum carer's allowance will receive an extra €153.60. Lone parents on the maximum rate will receive €168.10.
Letters advising welfare beneficiaries of the new arrangements will begin to arrive at recipients' homes from tomorrow.
The move to align the payments follows criticism from welfare recipients who argued that those who received electronic payments were being penalised.
Electronic payments are made a week in arrears, while payable order book payments are made a week in advance.
It also resulted in the bizarre practice of electronic benefits being paid to pensioners after they had passed away. Mr Brennan said he was pleased to rectify the situation, which will result in double payments being made over the course of next week.
He said: "This is a further step in the modernisation of the delivery of welfare payments and the ironing out of irregularities that inevitably surface in a system that makes more than 970,000 welfare payments a week that directly benefit more than 1.5 million people."
The first double payment will be made to thousands of people in receipt of the disability allowance on Wednesday, August 10th.
The next bonus will be paid to people in receipt of the carer's allowance, invalidity pension, retirement pension, one parent family payment and deserted wife's payments benefit on Thursday, August 11th.
The last of the bonus payments will be made to recipients of the old age contributory pension and non-contributory pension, along with pensions for widows, widowers, orphans and blind people.
After these double payments, welfare recipients, or "customers" as they are now called by the department, will receive their normal weekly payment in advance.
The generous approach of the Minister contrasts with the actions of the department at the beginning of the year when older people, lone parents and carers received double payments on December 30th, 2004, in error.
The department decided not to pay benefits worth up to €179 in the first week of January to 47,000 older people, lone parents and carers to make up for the mistake.
