Thousands hit by wages and social welfare payment delays

Bank delays are affecting many people who were expecting wages and social welfare payments in their accounts today.

The reason for the delay has been pinned on the May Day bank holiday in Europe yesterday.

While the 1st of May was not a bank holiday in Ireland this year, it was in many other countries across the continent. As a result, electronic Euro payments were stopped for the day.

Thousands of Irish people were left wondering about their payments this morning, but banks have assured customers that the transactions will be processed later in the day.

Bank of Ireland issued a statement on social media saying: “Wednesday the 1st of May 2019 is a European Bank holiday known as May Day. No Euro payments can be made between banks on this day. SEPA Direct Debits will not be processed on May 1st, they will be processed on May 2nd after all credits have applied to customer accounts.”

Ulster Bank said they are aware of the delays and expect the payments to credit at some stage this morning.

They tweeted: “We’re aware of some delays with credits being received due to the bank holiday and expect these to credit this morning.”

Another customer was told after 10am: “We’ve had confirmation that all credits have now been applied now so any that were due to credit today have now credited.”