Slavery: Victim Support Schemes

(asked on 14th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the implications of the FCA's freezing of Wire Card for her emergency response policy on payment card freezes to ensure that future victims of trafficking are supported as part of the Victim Care Contract and able to access funds.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 22nd July 2020

The Prime Contractor of the Adult Victims of Modern Slavery support contract (AVMS), The Salvation Army, has contingency and business continuity plans in place across a range of services to ensure resilience and continued support to victims of modern slavery.

Due to issues relating to the card provider, on 26 June 2020 potential and confirmed victims of modern slavery with access to a payment card through the AVMS support contract were informed the payment cards were frozen and advised to contact their dedicated support worker if they needed emergency cash payments.

All subcontractors of the AVMS support contract were also instructed to assess their service users for those who might have needed urgent payments, so they could be contacted proactively, and provided with support and access to funds as required.

On 30 June 2020, the freeze on the payment cards was lifted and all service users were able to resume using their payment cards.

All victims of modern slavery accessing financial support through the AVMS contract are eligible to access payment cards through this service, where relevant.

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