Radical Technology Solution for Social Care Payments Saves Local Council £1,000's, Eradicates Paperwork & Clears Processing Backlog

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• Publié par: prepaid-financial-services
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English

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Radical Technology Solution for Social Care

Payments Saves Local Council £1,000's,

Eradicates Paperwork & Clears Processing

Backlog

PR Newswire

LONDON, June 11, 2012

LONDON

,

June 11, 2012

/PRNewswire/ --

London's

Brent Council faced issues like others across the UK under austerity

initiatives. The government announced a collective savings target of £83

billion, including a plan to cut 490,000 public sector jobs. How then, to maintain

and grow vital services, including benefit payments to the most vulnerable -

those in need of care services.

Brent's Adult Social Services distribute payments to those managing their own

care benefits. Qualifying residents including those with learning disabilities,

mental health issues, aged care needs and physical disabilities receive funds

and pay for their approved services directly. Within their support plan,

individuals decide when and how often to schedule hours of care service and

manage relations with regular care staff. However, the system required

detailed transaction reporting and resulted in vast mountains of paperwork and

file storage.

Josephine Wessels, Project Manager at Brent Council reflects, "Our system was

cumbersome and required manual processing. Monthly payments by bank

transfer and management of paperwork approval was a nightmare. Time and

resources were spent processing, when frustratingly, could have been allocated

to new individuals in need."

Mr Bennett Amin, 68 and a Brent resident, cares for his daughter Ruth, who

suffers with multiple ailments including Pulmonic Stenosis (a condition

restricting blood flow in the heart) and Epilepsy. Ruth, 27 has required

specialist care from birth and qualifies for financial assistance.

Mr Amin recalls, "The payment system was time consuming and frustrating. It

took around 3 hours per month to complete time sheets, write cheques and

complete reports." He added, "I had to collect invoices and payslips, fax or post

copies of everything to council staff and keep reference files of everything in

my house."

Ms. Wessels also sympathised, "if there was ever a discrepancy in payments,

asking recipients to recall historical transaction details presented unique

difficulties."

Individual payments range from £500-£6,500 per month with handwritten

transaction records submitted and processed by under resourced staff. Large

payment volumes, partly managed by individuals requiring care, led to triple

handling, manual processing and storing paper data.

Brent Council previously moved to Prepaid cards as a payment solution with

limited success. So with budget restrictions, a backlog of processing and a

growing need to service more care recipients, radical thinking was desperately

needed.

Enter Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), with an integrated online real time

prepaid payment solution. The system redefined social payments with

outstanding results for both Brent Council and the care benefit recipients.

The customised system operates with reloadable Prepaid cards issued to

benefit recipients to receive funds. Secure online portals accessed by council

staff and cardholders complete the functionality. Monthly payments are batch

file processed, in bulk, to individual cards, with funds available in seconds. The

cardholder pays for various services direct and can view transaction history

online.

The real value to both parties centres on collection of transaction information.

Cardholders log onto their own secure portal, complete online forms and

upload scans/images of invoices and other notes. Those unable to use the

online portal can phone information through to PFS's

London

call centre. Each

drop down payment category can have a corresponding budget code with the

existing Brent Oracle Financial suite, further streamlining administration.

Staff time and resources have been dramatically reduced. Brent's four month

processing backlog will be cleared by July and staff hope to assist 1,000 new

care cases in the near future.

Mr Amin says, "The new card system has reduced my time input from 3 hours

to just minutes each month. Most people will be initially resistant to change,

but I think it is a better system."

Mr Amin, confesses he has no internet experience at all and utilises the PFS call

centre to complete his payment reporting. "I don't complete any paperwork

anymore and have no cheques to write. I just phone in the payment details. It

makes life easier for all, if people use it properly."

Payment information is stored securely by PFS, in a PCI certified data centre

and can be accessed by Council management via numerous reports - real time.

For the first time ever, council management can analyse data, providing

valuable insight and potential cost savings initiatives.

Brent has extended the PFS prepaid card system to other departments

including expenses/purchasing, one off emergency payments for Asylum

seekers and seasonal tickets (rail) management for staff.

Elizabeth Jones, Brent's Assistant Director of Finance states, "This system has

moved our Direct Payments monitoring firmly into the 21st century. A

completely scalable solution designed to reduce costs and improve efficiency."

Noel Moran, CEO of PFS says "The Brent project is another example of how PFS

technology can streamline a business process, resulting in multiple benefits that

filter down from management through staff to end users. The ability for Brent

to restrict spend at card level (real-time), shows the flexibility we provide to our

partners."

About Prepaid Financial Services (PFS)

Prepaid Financial Services Ltd. is one of the preferred suppliers of MasterCard

Europe, has programmes operating in 10 currencies and is recognised as a

specialist supplier to the prepaid industry globally. FSA regulated and currently

managing programmes processing millions of transactions every week, PFS

products are utilised by governments, blue chip corporations, SME's and

individual consumers with cutting edge, secure technology.

More information can be found on http://www.prepaidfinancialservices.com or

by phoning [phone].