Some 47,000 older people, lone parents and carers will not receive their welfare benefits worth up to €179 this week because they were mistakenly paid twice the normal rate last week.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mr Brennan, yesterday confirmed that these welfare recipients had received double payments on December 30th as a result of an error.
Groups representing carers and older people criticised the Department's move last night. They said it might cause hardship for recipients who had already spent the money after mistaking it for a Christmas bonus payment.
The decision will affect recipients of the weekly retirement pension (€179.30), carer's allowance (€153.60), invalidity pension (€154.30) and lone parent's allowance (€148.80).
Thousands of letters have been sent to welfare recipients affected by the error to say payments will not be made tomorrow. They will resume on Thursday, January 13th.
The Department spokeswoman said it was an unfortunate time of the year for the error to occur. She added that community welfare officers would have discretion to help people who found themselves in hardship.
Mr Paul Murray of Age Action Ireland, however, criticised the timing of the payments which, he said, affected some of the most vulnerable people in the population. "While it's understandable that the Department will want to rectify its error, it would have been better to inform people that the mistake will be corrected in the future.
"It's not enough to say to people who may have spent the money that if they are in difficulty then they should contact their local community welfare officers."
The Carers' Association said the error should be corrected over a long period of time instead of potentially causing financial hardship.
Mr Enda Egan, the association's chief executive, said: "The majority of carers do not scrutinise their payments and may have mistaken it for a Christmas bonus. This could cause financial dire straits for people in the first week of January."
A Department spokeswoman said computer systems used for welfare payments could not be adjusted to correct the error over several months. She said while 47,000 people were affected, the Department made weekly payments to about 970,000 people.
