Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what due diligence checks her Department carried out on Prepaid Financial Services prior to the award of the Aspen card contract; and how many other applicants there were for that contract.

Service Users were notified of the transition to the new Aspen cards well in advance of the transition and a significant majority of service users have now successfully received and activated their new card. For those who are not in receipt of an activated card and for any service user who required an emergency cash payment, funds were issued to cover the period until a new card arrives and / or it is successfully activated.

Additionally, accommodation providers are conducting welfare checks in which they will ensure those eligible for asylum support payments have received their new card and they understand how to activate it. We will continue to share data with our providers to ensure they prioritise the appropriate welfare/safeguarding checks.

Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) continue to support the Home Office in rolling out new ASPEN cards to asylum accommodation addresses. They have recently amended processes to ensure service users have increased opportunities to activate cards or avoid card cancellations. They have also agreed to facilitate bulk issue of cards to accommodation blocks to ensure activation for particular user groups.

Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) were awarded the contract for a new prepaid card service following an open and competitive tendering process which included due diligence checks. The Home Office utilised a Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Framework with 4 suppliers to conduct the tendering exercise and in total, three suppliers on the Framework (including Prepaid Financial Services) made a bid for the Support Payments Card (SPC) contract.

The Prepaid Financial Services (PFS) solution is a well-established Mastercard pre-paid card used by organisations across the UK as well as abroad in schemes involving refugees and vulnerable persons. The Home Office systems underwent 5 months of rigorous testing to integrate with Home Office systems incorporating technical and operational scenarios.

The programme utilised a number of data sources and the operation is managing implementation through internal databases therefore we do not currently have the people we support broken down by a particular category. Whilst, we are satisfied the majority have activated cards, we continue to provide direct access to the Home Office for local authorities via Strategic Migration Partnerships and third sector partners to ensure payments to those with vulnerabilities are prioritised.