CaixaBank will advance the payment of unemployment benefits to 3 May, seven days earlier than normal. The bank will undertake a special payment process during the bank-holiday weekend of 1 and 2 May to provide customers with funds from early on Sunday morning on 3 May.
In April, the company headed by Chairman Jordi Gual and Chief Executive Officer Gonzalo Gortázar was the first to decide to bring forward the payment of unemployment benefits to 3 May. A total of 635,000 recipients received their benefit payment from CaixaBank.
There is a two-fold objective to the measure: on the one hand, to support out-of-work people, many of whom are affected by ceased activity arising from the state of alert due to the COVID-19 epidemic, in order to cover their start-of-month expenses; on the other, it contributes to reducing and staggering the abundance of customers at physical branches, since it cuts the number of incidents related to basic direct-debit bills. Furthermore, if customers require part of their benefit in cash, they have more days to be able to visit cash machines to make withdrawals.
Like last month, the advance on payment will be automatic and customers will not have to carry out any procedures to request it. Similarly, those customers who received the benefit in April will receive the advanced payment. New recipients will be able to receive the benefit as the authorities issue further information that is necessary for the payment thereof.
Initiatives to be #ByYourSideNowMoreThanEver
The advanced payment of unemployment benefits is part of the #ByYourSideNowMoreThanEver initiative, launched by CaixaBank to remain by the side of its customers, shareholders, employees and society in general, as we face the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to other actions, this initiative also covers advances on the payment of pensions, writing off rent, extensions to mortgage moratoria and the 25 billion euros in preauthorised loans for SMEs and self-employed workers.
Similarly, CaixaBank has joined the entities part of CECA (Spanish Confederation of Saving Banks) in not charging ATM fees while the state of alert is in force. It has also increased the amount required to enter a PIN in card payments from 20 to 50 euros, thus avoiding any contact with physical surfaces thanks to the contactless technology.
