Welwyn Garden City, 22 May 2020: PayPoint has today announced that more than 250,000 vouchers for disadvantaged people - collectively worth over £8.5 million - have been redeemed through its network since 1 April 2020, using it’s CashOut digital vouchers service supported by i-movo.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Brits have found themselves in need of emergency cash. To assist with getting money quickly to people that need it most, PayPoint’s system enables the vouchers to be exchanged for cash at over 28,000 retail outlets across the UK.
Local authorities use PayPoint’s online portal to issue CashOut vouchers generated by i-movo, which are then sent out to members of the public by SMS or email. In store, the vouchers are scanned using the PayPoint service, and the customer handed the equivalent cash value.
PayPoint is now working with more than 70 local councils and has seen vouchers redeemed at convenience stores nationwide. In Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council have used the approach to facilitate their free school meal programmes while schools are closed. They have had more than 95,000 and 39,000 vouchers redeemed, respectively, since 1 April.
Danny Vant, Client Services Director at PayPoint, says: “PayPoint was founded on the principle of ensuring some of the most vulnerable people in society have access to essential services. Our CashOut solution is a key vehicle for this mission and we’re proud to be providing a critical service for families across the UK at a time of great uncertainty and difficulty.”
David Tymm, CEO of i-movo, says: “This combined PayPoint and i-movo service has been helping citizens out with emergency payments for eight years now and so is well-proven and understood by retailers. As a result, councils were able to start making payments swiftly and effectively.”
Angela Allan, Scottish Welfare Manager at North Lanarkshire Council, says: “Our residents’ needs have changed dramatically over the course of the coronavirus outbreak and we’ve been working hard to ensure these are met. Our existing partnership with PayPoint, dating back to 2014, has played a key role in this, enabling us to issue vouchers redeemable at more than 200 local retail locations.”
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ABOUT PAYPOINT
In thousands of retail locations, at home and on the move, we make life more convenient for everyone.
For retailers, we offer innovative and time-saving technology that empowers convenience retailers in the UK and Romania to achieve higher footfall and increased spend so they can grow their businesses profitably. Our innovative retail services platform, PayPoint One, is now live in over 16,000 stores in the UK and offers everything a modern convenience store needs, from parcels and contactless card payments to EPoS and bill payment services. Our technology helps retailers to serve customers quickly, improve business efficiency and stay connected to their stores from anywhere.
We help millions of people to control their household finances, make essential payments and access in-store services, like parcel collections and drop-offs. Our UK network of 28,000 stores is bigger than all banks, supermarkets and Post Offices together, putting us at the heart of communities nationwide.
For clients of all sizes we provide cutting-edge payments technologies without the need for capital investment. Our seamlessly integrated multichannel payments solution, MultiPay, is a one-stop shop for customer payments. PayPoint helps over 500 consumer service providers to save time and money while making it easier for their customers to pay – via any channel and on any device.