Pensioners get a New Year fright over January grants

Herald Reporter

SEVERAL thousand Eastern Cape State pensioners got a nasty New Year fright yesterday when they discovered that their January grants had not been paid into their banks accounts as expected.

The banking details of around 6 000 People’s Bank clients apparently disappeared from the system when the social development department initiated the transfer of the pension money from its First National Bank account to People’s Bank at the weekend.

Staff at People’s Bank, a division of Nedcor, were inundated with queries from worried pensioners yesterday morning. Grants are usually paid into bank accounts without fail by the third of each month. Other pensioners collect their money from paypoints at different times of the month.

Nedbank divisional director (group software services) Trevor Howcroft said a joint investigation was under way between the banks, the department and the Bankserve agency that distributes funds between banks, to determine the cause of the problem.

However, the bank was doing everything in its power to ensure that the funds would be available this morning, he said.

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