Pensioners hit by ATM failures

Pensioners hit by ATM failures
Tags: Bank / Credit Union, EFT Networks, Other, Retail / Off-Premises, Transaction Processing
September 12, 2004

The Guardian: LONDON - Thousands of the poorest retired people have twice been unable to get their pensions in the past two months because a new post office computer system has failed.

The Royal Mail is negotiating with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Inland Revenue to set up an emergency payments system in case the computer system collapses again.

The system provides pensions for millions of people who have no bank accounts. When the pension book was abolished, they were issued cards and PIN numbers and told to draw their money from ATMs in post offices.

But on July 7 and Aug. 23 the entire system went down for up to three hours, leaving people with no access to their money. Read more ...