Prepaid Cards, Direct Payments and Managed Accounts

The request was successful.

Dear Sheffield City Council,

1) How many of your authority's customers are in receipt of a direct payment for Care Act services, please?

2) What was the combined value of all Care Act budgets delivered through direct payments made in 2020 and 2019, please?

3) What is the median amount of a gross direct payment made on behalf of your organisation?

4) How frequently are direct payments made (i.e., weekly, fortnightly, 28 days or calendar month). Please provide a breakdown thank you.

5) How many of your direct payment clients receive their payment into a prepaid card or managed account? Please provide a breakdown of the numbers, thank you.

6) Which prepaid card suppliers has your organisation contracted with?

7) What is the applicable contract length with these providers and when do these arrangements come up for renewal?

8) Does your organisation use prepaid cards to disburse funds to other people (i.e., asylum seekers, refugees, homeless). If so, please can you provide a breakdown of the median amount, recipient category, frequency of funds disbursed and the total value of funds made in 2020 and 2019, please?

9) Is your s151 Officer (CFO) aware of the recent £32 million GBP fine levied against Mastercard, allpay and PFS for allegedly operating a cartel in the public sector prepaid card space? Link to PSR article here: https://www.psr.org.uk/news-updates/late...

10) Has your organisation released a statement about these proceedings and if so, please can you provide it thank you?

Yours faithfully,

John A Gelmini

FOI, Sheffield City Council

Dear John A Gelmini,

 

Thank you for your request for information relating to Care Act services,
Prepaid Cards, Direct Payments and Managed Account which we received on
23/08/2021.

 

This has been logged as a Freedom of Information Request and will be dealt
with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The reference number for
your request can be found above.

 

Please be aware that Sheffield City Council’s response to the global
COVID-19 pandemic has led to a reduction in resources across the Council,
meaning that we are currently dealing with a backlog of requests.

 

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 states that we must respond to you
within 20 working days, by 21/09/2021, but we kindly ask for your patience
as we anticipate that there may be a delay in some cases. Please do not
hesitate to contact us at the email address below if you have any queries.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [1][Sheffield City Council request email]

 

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI, Sheffield City Council

1 Attachment

Dear John A Gelmini,

 

Thank you for your request for information relating to Care Act services,
Prepaid Cards, Direct Payments and Managed Account which we received on
23/08/2021.

 

Please find Sheffield City Council’s response to your request set out
below:

 

1) How many of your authority's customers are in receipt of a direct
payment for Care Act services, please?

 

2078

 

2) What was the combined value of all Care Act budgets delivered through
direct payments made in 2020 and 2019, please?

 

2019 - £37.5m

2020 - £41.6m

Calendar year used

Based on commissioned costs from our Purchasing Budget report which shows
ongoing weekly commissioned costs per person

This excludes one-offs

Annual Packages are proportioned, i.e. if annual package starts in June 20
then only ½ of total included 2020 annual cost and the other half in 2021

 

3) What is the median amount of a gross direct payment made on behalf of
your organisation?

 

£1,967.00

 

Median amount of all current DP’s paid over last 12 months

 

4) How frequently are direct payments made (i.e. weekly, fortnightly, 28
days or calendar month).  Please provide a breakdown thank you.

 

4 weekly in advance

 

5) How many of your direct payment clients receive their payment into a
prepaid card or managed account?  Please provide a breakdown of the
numbers, thank you.

 

Pre-payment Cards – None

Managed Account Companies – 1,523

 

6) Which prepaid card suppliers has your organisation contracted with?

 

PFS (Pre-Paid Financial Services) who with effect from 26^th February 2021
now operate as EML Payments Ltd

 

7) What is the applicable contract length with these providers and when do
these arrangements come up for renewal?

 

The contract length is 4 years from 18^th February 2019 to 28^th February
2023

 

8) Does your organisation use prepaid cards to disburse funds to other
people (i.e. asylum seekers, refugees, homeless).

If so, please can you provide a breakdown of the median amount, recipient
category, Frequency of funds disbursed Total value of funds made in 2019
Total value of funds made in 2020

 

Please see attachment

 

9) Is your s151 Officer (CFO) aware of the recent £32 million GBP fine
levied against Mastercard, allpay and PFS for allegedly operating a cartel
in the public sector prepaid card space? Link to

PSR article here:

[1]https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlo...

 

Yes

 

10) Has your organisation released a statement about these proceedings and
if so, please can you provide it thank you?

 

No

 

If you have any queries about this response, please do not hesitate to
contact us.

 

The information provided in this response is available for re-use under
the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0. The terms of the OGL can be
found [2]here. When re-using the information, Sheffield City Council
requires you to include the following attribution statement: “Contains
public sector information obtained from Sheffield City Council and
licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.”

 

If you are unhappy with the response you have received in relation to your
request, you are entitled to have this reviewed. You can ask for an
internal review by replying to this email. Internal review requests should
be submitted within 40 working days from the date of this response.

 

If you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of your internal review, you
can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. Please see
[3]https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/offi...
for further details.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Sheffield City Council

PO Box 1283

Sheffield, S1 1UJ

Email: [4][Sheffield City Council request email]

 

 

 

show quoted sections