London's Shared Service Alliance of Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and City of Westminster Appoints Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) to Manage its Direct Payments Prepaid Card Programme

LONDON, March 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), has been appointed by shared service alliance of local authorities (Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and City of Westminster) to manage a prepaid card programme for all social care service users who are in receipt of a direct payment.

The turnkey solution will initially target 140 users who had previously held a prepaid card and then will subsequently roll out to all 1,400 adult service users, followed by children. The alliance also aims to apply the same prepaid model for other departments in future too.

The deployment of prepaid cards is part of the local authority transformation agenda: by increasing the uptake of prepaid cards, Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and City of Westminster are not only meeting the Care Act obligations of inclusion and enablement but they will also significantly streamline the administration of their payments operation.

Prakash Daryanani, Director of ASC Finance, said: "We are looking forward to experiencing the immediate returns of leaner working practices and cost savings but a longer term benefit will be an improvement in our understanding of users' spend which will help shape commissioning. Whilst it was possible to analyse all the paperwork provided by service users, a real time, digital system will enable us to better monitor spend and ensure that there is a spectrum of high quality support available.

"Prepaid cards will also completely remove the end user's administrative headache of reconciling paper-based receipts and bank statements to provide transparency of spend."

Noel Moran, CEO, Prepaid Financial Services, said: "Our experience and expertise in managing other local authorities' programmes meant that we were well positioned to understand the challenges of developing a prepaid solution to disburse social care direct payments.

The simplicity of using a PFS prepaid card belies the agile technology platform that underpins it - meaning that the three local authorities have the ability to create a bespoke programme that suited their specific requirements tailored to benefit their end users."

About Prepaid Financial Services: 

Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) is an award winning payments technology specialist offering a comprehensive range of e-money and banking solutions including e-wallets, physical and virtual prepaid cards and current accounts in the UK and the Eurozone. Authorised and regulated by the FCA in the UK, PFS has passported its e-money license across the SEPA region to enable card issuance throughout the region.

Founded in 2008, PFS is now one of the fastest growing issuers in Europe, with programmes live and active in 23 countries with the ability to transact in 20 different currencies. Its products and cutting-edge technology platforms are utilised by governments, local authorities, non-governmental organisations, mobile networking operators, banks, and corporates globally.

For more information about PFS's payment solutions please contact: sales@prepaidfinancialservices.com