We refer to the letter Oi, what happened to pensioners' Raya bonus?

With reference to the writer’s complaint about not receiving the RM500 special payment for pensioners through his bank account as late as Sept 9, our records indicate that the order to pay as well as the funds for the payment to all 504,677 pensioners were conveyed to the 14 banks by the evening of Sept 3, enabling encashment on Monday, Sept 6, thus meeting the prime minister's promised dateline of 1 Syawal (Sept 10).

An additional 1,287 pensioners had payment warrants (their preferred mode of payment) posted to their address before Sept 6. The RM500 entitlement, paid without regard to race or religion, was also enjoyed by over a million serving government employees nationwide through their monthly payroll system.

Notwithstanding our best intentions, we received several complaints from pensioners who were not able to access the RM500 through their account. Of these, some 210 had to do with pensioners whose RM500 went into joint accounts of one bank but were returned to the Public Service Department through a technical flaw in that bank's computerised payment programme - a problem remedied on Monday, Sept 13.

Two banks allowed encashment earlier (beginning Sept 3), causing a few dozen pensioners who were not keeping track of additional sums credited into their account to withdraw the RM500 along with their pensions for August during the first week of September, only to wait anxiously for an additional crediting of RM500 which of course never came.

About two dozen cases of encashment difficulty were traced to pensioners being unaware that their accounts had been suspended or rendered inactive for some reason and the special payment reverted to the department.

Since this was for many an unexpected windfall and on a date different from the usual last week of the month that pensioners are accustomed to, problems related to encashment of the RM500 for our aged clients were almost unavoidable.

They can rest assured that our Help Desks (at 03-88854906 or here ) will respond to solve any difficulty within a day. I can be reached at 03-8885 4014 or at [email protected] and our chief accountant at 03-8885 4160 or at [email protected]

  The writer is director, Post-Service (Pensions) Division, Public Service Department .