Government officials have warned of a heartless new coronavirus scam targeting workers.
The fraudsters are ringing up people who have applied for the new special welfare payment after being let go because of Covid-19.
They’re posing as officials from the bank and are asking for financial details to process payments.
The Assistant Secretary at the Department of an Taoiseach, Elizabeth Canavan, wants the public to know that this is a total scam and that neither the banks nor the department will ever ring up looking for details.
And Ms Canavan said there was no need to ring the department in relation to their applications either.
She told reporters in Government Buildings: “The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection have asked us to specifically mention that they have become aware of a number of members of the public receiving phone calls from individuals purporting to be from the bank or financial institution and requesting their bank account or financial details.
“You will not get a phone call looking for your bank details from the Government.”
The horrible scam has emerged as the Government announced that everybody (at least 50,000) who has applied already for the new €206
per week Coronavirus unemployment benefit will get their payments on Tuesday morning.
It was also confirmed that as of today, people will start moving to getting social welfare benefits every two weeks instead of weekly to help social distancing.
Ms Canavan was representing the Government at a new daily briefing that was launched on Monday.
Senior officials from the Taoiseach’s office will be available every morning from now on to provide the media with the latest news about what the Government is doing to tackle the ongoing crisis.
Ms Canavan also told reporters that a new interactive ‘dashboard’ will be available on the Government’s website (gov.ie) providing the latest
up to date stats every day.
Other updates include a move from the Department of Justice to accept applications online from 7,000 immigrants looking to get their status approved.
This will allow the department to temporarily close their offices on Burgh Quay which would have seen 450 to 500 people a day coming in for
appointments.
The spokeswoman said that the Government has no concerns about the food supply chain and that Minister for Business, Heather Humphreys, has met with the retail chiefs about this.
Anyone over 70 normally has to get a medical to get their driving licence renewed every year.
This requirement has been suspended for now.
