CommBank takes blame for Centrelink payment delay

A processing error within the systems of the Commonwealth Bank has been blamed for a delay in payments to Centrelink welfare recipients over the weekend.

The Bank claimed that only a "small number" of its Centrelink customers were affected by the payment delay, which occurred on Saturday.

On a weekly basis, Centrelink deposits benefits welfare payments with The Reserve Bank on Thursday nights. The RBA then passes the deposits to consumer banks on Fridays.

Recipients with Commonwealth Bank accounts would usually have recieved the payment by Saturday morning, but over the weekend welfare recipients reported not recieving the payments until Sunday.

A media spokesperson for the bank said there was nothing "sinister" behind the delay.

He told iTnews a data file - originally processed on Friday - required reprocessing the following day.

"[It] was completed [by] Saturday," he said. "This impacted a very small number of customers and the bank apologises to those customers who were delayed in receiving payment."

Centrelink confirmed with iTnews that it had also investigated the situation and found there were no delays in its processing of customer's payments to the Reserve Bank on Thursday night.

"It's important to note that this was not a Centrelink issue and that it was resolved over the weekend," said a Centrelink spokesperson.