Suggestion Required: Cashcard Options for Client with Disability

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  Switchblade88 on 14/01/2023 - 17:27

  A debit card will fulfil most of the tracking you might meed - you won't get tax invoices, but if you're just tracking spending for accountability that's fine. It would require setting up either one account per client, which can be really complicated when dealing with the bank, ID documents, and disabled clients with communication and/or mental impairments.

  If you have the option, you could have one 'client spending' account setup/owned by your non-profit then hand out the various lender cards when needed. This makes setup easier, tracking easier (e.g. auto reconciliation via Xero) and only requires the card to be returned by the client at the end of the day. This method does depend on you receiving and tracking funds yourself which can be another hurdle, but less so than trying to deal with banks for each client.

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    echineon on 15/01/2023 - 11:53

    thanks for the suggestion, I will check with our AP team if a card is possible, it can be corporate but at the end of the day, my corporate card is treated like my personal card, I have to give out my driver licence and medicare so it's maybe something not possible with AP team to set up as it can be ripe for abuse if allowed…

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      Switchblade88 on 15/01/2023 - 13:06

      as it can be ripe for abuse

      To be fair, if you're already handing out cash to your clients you're already at an elevated risk of abuse.

      In a corporate/NFP setting then it really matters less who's name is on the card and more about who is responsible for the transactions. Yes, the bank will have your ID, but they presumably already have that - and as a debit card/savings account you have no risk of say credit history being affected.

      You don't have to have any funds in the account until it's ready to be used either - just login to online banking and do a transfer the morning of the outing, then hand over the card saying to the carer/NOK 'Currently loaded with $30 for today' and away they go.

      Client gets easy funds access, NOK doesn't have to worry about paper receipts, you have proof of spending and everyone has reduced risk of fraud.

      (Not sure who negged my comment above? Why?)

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        echineon on 15/01/2023 - 13:16

        we have 10,000 employees, our AP team has 5 people, I don't have elevated admin access to load up the card so it's not feasible. Plus my AP team won't be able to handle the workload for something we can do in facility so sadly a no.

        I didn't neg you but didn't realise the neg so upvote your comment thanks.

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          Switchblade88 on 15/01/2023 - 13:23

          @echineon: I'm used to dealing with 20-odd employees, so I can deal with a lot of this myself haha

          If it's a common issue then maybe you should escalate this suggestion up the chain. I assume there'd be a lot of clients in a similar situation so I'd be pushing for structural change instead of stopgap solutions e.g. the prepaid visa cards

          …Just to be clear, you can issue clients with cash but not do bank transfers? I'd think it would make sense to have banking auth as well as cash handling auth.

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            echineon on 15/01/2023 - 13:32

            +1

            @Switchblade88: I won't divulge into this much but yes! cash is shit, I agree. Sometimes I get oldies live in housing commission for all of their lives coming to care and bring mattress cash - I had situation like that before lol. $5,000 cash and here you go. Most of transaction is dealt with at facility level, hence a very small team to deal with our suppliers/occasional reimbursement at head office.

            per my post below, preload card with ability to transfer is great - auspost card seems to tick all the boxes. recharge/reconcile will be done at facility level. if it works out at my facility I'll push it up the chain.

            cash is still king, for client/resident with little to themselves - the fact they are in charge of their own cash and buy things from a vending machine is to them dignity and respect - none of us will take that rights away from them. seems mundane I know but I'm just glad to be in position to make decision to preserve that.

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    Love a bargain on 15/01/2023 - 14:47

    Not sure this would work, unless the organisation is willing to organise a card for each client.

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  ihbh on 14/01/2023 - 17:51

  How do you manage possible situations such as the support worker buys a Big Mac meal and gives the person in their support just the chips?

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    echineon on 15/01/2023 - 11:51

    sharing is definitely not our concern, we are concern of financial abuse. We can always ask our client how was the trip, what did you have and it's fine if it's shared. The unaccounted for cash is our concern, $5 $10 here and there adds up.

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      ihbh on 15/01/2023 - 12:51

      I meant the client asked the support worker to buy lunch; and he does with the provided money and gives the client the chips while he has the Big Mac and drink.

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        echineon on 15/01/2023 - 13:12

        while certainly unethical and immoral, if it happens on a regular basis our client would lose weight or has poor diet which we will know. More than that, I don't think our clients are gonna happy with just the chips mate, even people with intellectual disability will know much more than you would assume. For those completely unable it's usually a group outing of 2 or more support workers/carers due to personal care needs during outing. In either scenarios, I don't think it can be habitual.

        To cut to the chase, I am only worried about NOK using their loved one under the guise of buying items and the cash don't match up - believe it or not we suspect a NOK who seems to be "on the edge" taking their brother/sister out and just went straight to a deal - hence the need for a cashless option.

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  holdenmg on 14/01/2023 - 20:00

  Hi,

  That is an interesting scenario.

  I'll assume the NOK has a Mobile Phone.

  One way you might like to look at is to go to a Digital Visa Gift Card/Digital Gift Card, the card is redeemable at retailers with contactless payment facilities.
  https://www.westfield.com.au/shop/westfield-digital-gift-car…

  This is Visa $10-$200 Custom Amount with a $2.95 service fee to set-up).

  Mastercard also offer a thing called https://www.shouta.co/
  But there seems to be fees when you spend and I'm not sure if you can recharge,

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    echineon on 15/01/2023 - 11:49

    +1

    thanks for the suggestion, definitely would go this route but I'm unsure if any can show transaction history.

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  dtc on 14/01/2023 - 20:10

  Ubank debit card has an option to immediately notify you (via the app and notification on the phone) of any transaction (other card may have the same). If you set up the app on your phone then you will see all the transactions even if the card is being used by someone else. As mentioned by switchblade88 above, most debit cards also allow this

  I’m not sure whether you can have multiple cards linked to the same app/system - you can have 2 cards but I’m not sure whether you can have more

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  echineon on 15/01/2023 - 13:23

  +1

  to anyone interested, I think a viable option is via Auspost mastercard: seems to meet all of my current needs; I will send my team over to Auspost next week to set up and see where it goes - https://auspost.com.au/money-insurance/prepaid-cards/everyda…

  thanks for checking in.

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  stingysydney on 15/01/2023 - 20:34

  you need to get into contact with 8Common and their CardHero product. They issue prepaid cards and layer it with their expense management platform. NDIS issuers like Life Without Barriers and Westhaven use them, and their expense management program is used by the Federal Government.