PayPoint has revealed that more than 250,000 vouchers for disadvantaged people – collectively worth over £8.5m – have been redeemed through its network since 1 April 2020, using its CashOut digital vouchers service.
In Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council use 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.
CashOut vouchers are 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.
Angela Allan, Scottish Welfare Manager at North Lanarkshire Council, commented: “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.”
