Provision Of Payment Card Services

Descriptions

A Prepaid Card System was implemented in 2019 after a Financial Audit had identified failings with financial monitoring not being carried out in a timely fashion. This was due to paperwork needing to be collated from the Service user. Audit had also identified significant balances of unspent funds that were not being recovered, this was due to the Service user being paid funds into an account that is owned by them, making it difficult for Council to get money back. The system implemented addressed the issues identified by Audit and has proven to allow the Council to recover unspent funds saving the council to date in excess of 6million GBP. The old manual process caused undue stress to Service users due to the financial monitoring returns required.  The current system removes the barriers for users who are not able to take responsibility for completing financial monitoring but are capable or arranging their own care. The current contract is due to end February 2024. The Service are seeking to ensure they have a system beyond this date to continue to provide an efficient service and enable savings to continue by being able to reclaim unspent funds. Corporate Appointee accounts are to be added to the system