2.15 Benefit payment through transfers to claimants' bank accounts was the cheapest and most efficient method of payment. But when previously raised as a serious option in 1993 it was rejected by Ministers on the grounds that it would have put at risk the national network of sub-post offices. The joint Department/ Post Office feasibility study of February 1994 had been asked to report on the feasibility of automating payments at post offices. The risk that ministerial policy might change was therefore not considered likely. It was only from July 1997, in the light of continued delays in delivery of the Payment Card, that a review of options was instigated. The Department and the Agency then commenced contingency planning for the possible introduction of bank transfers as the normal method of benefit payment should the Payment Card project slip further.