Thousands of welfare recipients have been left out of pocket over Christmas after they were overcharged on local property tax.

Around 26,000 people have chosen to pay the tax by having it deducted from their weekly welfare payments.

However, a mistake in the processing of payments at the Department of Social Protection means an extra week of the tax was deducted from payments made in advance of Christmas.

It is understood that the double deduction was linked to the department’s practice of making a double payment of welfare to recipients in the week beginning December 15th and no payment in the current week. Most welfare recipients also received a 25 per cent Christmas bonus.

Three payments

Recipients would have been liable to make two weekly contributions towards their local property tax bill. In the event, a amount equal to three weekly payments was deducted.

A source close to the department said that the bulk of those affected were in receipt of the State pension.

A number of people contacted the department and the Revenue Commissioners when they noticed the disproportionately high property tax deduction.

It was unclear how much the overcharging amounted to, given the variable nature of local property tax bills.

A spokeswoman for the department said that, due to a “technical error”, the property tax for the first week of 2015 was taken earlier than intended “resulting in some customers having additional local property tax deductions”.

The department said customers affected by the overcharging would not have any money deducted from their first welfare payment of the new year. “The Department of Social Protection regrets the inconvenience caused,” the spokeswoman said.