Banking Details

Overview

This service allows you to update your banking details held by the Department of Social Security for receiving benefit payments. If you currently receive payments by cheque, you must switch to direct deposit. If you already receive payments by direct deposit, you may update your bank account number which will now be referred to as IBAN (International Bank Account Number). 

You may also opt to receive an SMS notification indicating the date your benefit will be deposited. However, this service cannot be used to change your payment method from direct deposit back to cheque.

What you’ll get

With this service, you will have access to the following features:

• Facility to update your banking details held with the Department of Social Security online.
• Facility to change your payment method from cheque to direct credit into your bank account.
• Facility to receive a payment notification via SMS to be informed when your benefit has been deposited.
• When you authenticate with your personal e‑ID and you are registered as an administrator with the Department of Social Security, you may update the banking details of the beneficiary/ies under your responsibility. However, once a beneficiary for whom you are the Administrator passes away, you will no longer be able to update their IBAN details. 

When you ask to have your banking details updated at a Servizz.gov centre and the person requesting the change provides an email address, an email notification will be sent to this person upon both submission and completion of the process. If no email address is provided, the Servizz.gov agent will request a mobile contact number so that an SMS notification can be sent instead. These notifications serve as confirmation that the report has been received and processed by the Department of Social Security.

Eligibility

• A person registered under the Social Security Act (Cap. 318.), can update his/her banking details held by the Department of Social Security even though one is not a beneficiary to date.

Requirements

To use this service, you will need:

• An active e-ID account issued by the Maltese government agency Identità. 

Additional Information

• The indicated IBAN must be a savings or current account, but not a loan Account and must be in the name of the beneficiary, or in the name of the beneficiary’s administrator registered with the Department. If the indicated IBAN does not match the name of the beneficiary, it is highly probable that the bank will reject the payment transaction.
• If a person is presently not a DSS beneficiary but is registered under the Social Security Act, banking details held by the department must still be updated indicating an IBAN which must be in the name of the registered person.
• The IBAN details provided will be commonly used for all other benefits.
• If a beneficiary has a garnishee order, he/she is to inform the preferred bank about the amendment to Article 381 of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure ( Cap. 12.), to have a bank account issued in the beneficiary’s name accordingly.
• In accordance to Article 381(1)(b) of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure ( Cap. 12.), it shall not be lawful to issue a garnishee order upon any benefit, pension, allowance or assistance mentioned in the Social Security Act or a private pension or any other pension, benefit or allowance issued by the government or other foreign government: Provided that in the case of private pensions and pensions issued by foreign governments, the amount that is not sequestrable must not exceed the amount established for the highest pension issued by the government.

When a Payment is not Received

If a deposit in the bank account is not finalised because of an incorrect IBAN or closure of an account, the beneficiary is to notify the Department of Social Security immediately online. The following procedure is to be adhered to, which usually takes between ten (10) to fifteen (15) days to be processed:

• The Department of Social Security will notify the bank regarding the transaction.
• The bank carries out the necessary checks to specify the reason why the transaction was not finalised.
• If the transaction is cleared, the beneficiary is to provide an alternative IBAN for payment to be processed.

How to access the service

The user must authenticate to access the Banking Details service. 

If while trying to access this online service you encounter an issue or need assistance to access this service:

• Visit our Contact Us page, select ‘Banking Details’ from the drop-down list under the mySocialSecurity cluster, and provide the details of your issue, or
• Book a Microsoft Teams call with a member from the Information Management Unit.