Benefits PREPAID CARD move a step closer, bad move ??

Jane_gs

Benefit claimants might eventually get a prepaid card.

Benefits prepaid cards move a step closer

The DWP have published the results of a new study which supports the introduction of prepaid cards for vulnerable benefits claimants.

The DWP carried out a pilot using prepaid cards in Kent. The experiment has been assessed by the Centre for Social and Economic Research at Sheffield Hallam University.

The prepaid cards can be used to withdraw cash and to make payments, set up direct debits and buy items online. Statements and balances can also be checked online.

In the pilot there were no restrictions on what could be purchased using the cards.

The study found that the cards were particularly useful for “people in debt whose benefits were otherwise being swallowed up by overdrafts or credit debt payments in their current bank account.”

The cards also provided “greater financial safety for a few participants who had been exploited by previous or current partners or peers in the past.”

For some claimants, the cards allowed them to buy cheaper products and services online and set up direct debits to reduce costs on utility bills in a way they had not been able to before.

You can download a copy of the full evaluation of prepaid cards report from
this link.

Are prepaid cards a good idea or the start of a slippery slope towards preventing claimants decide how they spend their cash? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Would you think this would be a disadvantage to vulnerable claimants?

Ames

Are these the cards where cash is loaded on and you then have to go to a paypoint to use it? There's been a fair few threads on here where it's gone horribly wrong, from cash not being loaded when it should to shops not having cash on the premises to pay out.

Hopefully a pilot that will be filed under 'mistake'.

50Twuncle

I fail to see any reason why the government would even consider such a potentially stupid idea - unless it was designed to save money by stopping payments to some people ?
But which group would they choose ?

I know - lets pick "THE DISABLED"
They don't have a mind of their own
They will fall in line with everything the government wants
They are ALL STUPID !!
None of them have bank accounts / debit cards / credit cards or an ounce of financial know-how at all..
Problems with Prepayment cards - being that many companies see them as Credit cards and charge for using them (£2-£3 being consumed every time they are used)
That "trial" was conducted on 20 specially selected individuals - so I doubt very much whether anyone is taking the results seriously - I certainly am not...