PENSIONERS have been made to wait an extra two weeks for a Christmas bonus on which they say they were depending.

Senior citizens usually receive a £10 Christmas bonus in their pensions but, becuase of a clerical error, Weymouth pensioners who receive their bonus cheques separately did not receive them at all, then when they did arrive, the cheques had the wrong code on so could not be cashed.

Those cheques now have to be sent back to the Department of Health and Social Security in Bournemouth where they were issued and pensioners have to wait for amended cheques to be sent out.

Seventy-year-old Roy Berry of Newstead Road in Weymouth was one of the pensioners affected. He said: "It said in our pension books there was to be a £10 bonus with our pensions this week but when I went to draw it at the Post Office in the town centre they didn't have the cheques so had to ring Bournemouth to get them sent over.

"Now we've got the giro cheques and have gone down to the Post Office to cash them and they can't be cashed because they've all got the wrong codes.

"I've been to three post offices and they have all said they would need to ring Bournemouth. Everybody has now got to take their cheques back in for them all to be sent back and issued again. I think it's ridiculous.

"All old age pensioners depend on that £10, they look forward to it. I've got about £10 left without it but I spoke to one lady who said it was going to buy her a bit of shopping that she can't get now.

"When you know something is coming you budget for it. And £10 on top of my usual £98 makes quite a difference. I was going to use the money to send Christmas cards and presents to my family."

A spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions said: "There was a problem with those whose cheques are sent out manually. We apologise because of course people should have the correct cheques but new ones have now been sent out."