THE Department for the Economy last night issued an apology after it emerged that some high street voucher scheme cards had been sent to the wrong people.
A spokesman said they were "aware of a very small number of cases" where applicants had received a correctly addressed letter, but the spend local card "bears the wrong name".
It comes after Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson spoke of his concerns of a "very serious security breach" of the scheme.
He said he had been contacted by constituents who had received cards meant for other people, as the first round of the scheme begins to roll out across Northern Ireland.
The first 100,000 spend local cards were issued on Monday with £100 pre-loaded onto each card for spending in bricks and mortar shops across the north.
But Mr Dickson last night said it was a "worrying" development that constituents had received "letters addressed to them, yet with cards attached for other people".
He called on the Economy minister Gordon Lyons to "give urgent reassurance that this mistake will be fully investigated in order to deliver public confidence in the scheme".
"This is potentially a very serious security breach, with constituents receiving letters addressed to them, yet with cards attached for other people," he said.
"How has the printing system managed to get things so wrong?
The Department for the Economy spokesman said: "More than 1.1 million people have submitted an application for a spend local card under the High Street Scheme.
"Over 987,000 of those have been verified and the first 100,000 spend local cards have this week been issued to successful applicants, with more to follow in the coming weeks.
"We are aware of a very small number of cases where successful applicants under the High Street Scheme have received a correctly addressed letter with a spend local card attached that bears the wrong name.
"Working with the card issuer, we have established how this occurred and the card issuer will rectify these cases as quickly as possible.
"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused."
He said anyone that receives a card that does not have the correct name on it, should email SpendLocalNI@economy-ni.gov.uk or phone the customer care line on the spend local letter.
