Prepaid in Local Government

Prepaid cards in Local Government

There are a wide number of uses for prepaid cards in Local Government, including:

• Individual budgets
• Leaving care payments
• No recourse / asylum seeker payments
• Housing benefits
• Grants to third parties
• Travel and expenses
• Petty cash and imprest accounts
• Youth activity projects
• School meals and uniforms

The benefits are obvious for local government authorities looking for a better way to deliver funds to social care recipients, creating savings for the local authority and giving more choice and freedom to the recipient:

• Councils issuing prepaid cards will get more control and less effort.
• Efficiency – Prepaid cards can be 70% cheaper to administer than cash and 50% cheaper than running a bank account.
• Reduction in risk – Councils will need to store and move less cash. Council staff are less likely to be exposed to the threat of robbery or violent crime.
• Better cash management – Unspent funds can be recouped automatically or manually.
• Better information – Depending on the type of scheme, information on the activities of cardholders can be made available for analysis.

Clients carrying prepaid cards will also experience a range of benefits:

• Personal safety – Cards eliminate the need to carry cash. Lost or stolen cards can be cancelled without losing funds.
• Choice – Cardholders can make on-line payments, telephone payments and point of sale payments as well as being used at ATMs.
• Financial awareness – Cardholders gain a better understanding of how to manage their money.
• Social inclusion – Residents who are ineligible for bank accounts can still use prepaid cards, making them part of the electronic economy.

Cards can be used to get funds to citizens faster (for example young people leaving council care who traditionally would have to go to an office - often far from their home or work - to pick up their allowances) and with dramatically lower administrative costs, enhancing both the local authority’s operational efficiency and the citizen’s satisfaction.


Such solutions may be critical to bridging the anticipated/impending social care funding gap, with current inefficient delivery mechanisms and processes and forecast for increased demand leading to estimates of a £6b gap between required and available fund for social care within the next 20 years.


Ticon’s team knows prepaid cards and has deep experience in serving the local government sector and its specific needs. Ticon understand the pressures that local authorities face, are aware of citizens needs for better services, are expert at identifying process and delivery inefficiencies, and know how to use best practice business process improvement methodologies and innovative payment solutions such as prepaid cards to deliver meaningful results.

Prepaid in Local Government case study

Click on the link to see how we can show Local Governments what advantages a prepaid programme has for them.
Savings through Innovative Payments Programme (Download pdf)

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