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WQ.237/2020
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SECURITY
BY DEPUTY C.S. ALVES OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 30th JUNE 2020
Question
With regards to the recipients of Covid Related Emergency Support Scheme (C.R.E.S.S.) who receive payments via the Bankers' Automated Clearing System (B.A.C.S.), will the Minister advise –
- how frequently are such payments made;
- if an applicant's payment is rejected or fails, how promptly are payments re-issued;
- in the event of a failed or rejected payment, does the Government proactively notify the recipient or does responsibility lie with the recipient to contact the Government;
- how many individuals have contacted the Government about missing payments; and
- how many of these missing payments have not yet been followed up or re-issued?
Answer
- CRESS Payments are paid weekly in arrears.
- Payment re-issues will depend on the circumstances of why the BACS payment was rejected. See (d) for more detail.
- Re-issues are agreed with the claimant on a case by case basis, typically by providing a double payment of benefit in the following week. If a customer indicates that they are in immediate hardship and cannot wait this long, the customer can arrange to collect a cash payment from CLS by appointment.
- Where CLS is aware of a returned BACS payment staff will investigate the reason for rejection and contact the customer where possible. If a customer is missing a payment of benefit and has not received any communication from CLS about this, they should contact the CRESS team.
- The question does not specify what is meant by "missing payments". The most common reason for a BACS payment failure is that the payee's account details provided by the customer are incorrect. If a customer provided incorrect bank account details on their application submission, CLS staff will contact the customer to confirm the correct account details. CLS does not hold records that would make it possible to report on the specific reasons that individuals have contacted the CRESS team.
- When CLS is aware of a BACS payment being returned, this will be followed up and re-issued where applicable. Of the approximately 2,550 payments of CRESS benefit up to the 21/06/2020 there have been 53 BACS rejected payments, reflecting less than 3% of total payments. All of these rejected payments have had appropriate action taken.