Aberdeen City Council is considering extending a smart card scheme to allow citizens to collect welfare payments from cash machines.

The Accord Card provides holders with proof of age and entitlements, discounts and concessions in retail and leisure outlets, library membership and loyalty points. It is widely used for cashless catering within schools, removing the stigma associated with receiving free meals.

The council is in discussions with cash machine operator LINK Interchange Network to allow residents to collect some forms of payments.

‘Some young people are entitled to payments if they stay on at school for example, and this scheme would mean an end to lost cheques,’ said Claire Burt, Accord Card Scheme, marketing and sales officer at Aberdeen City Council.

‘The whole point of the card is to be socially inclusive. Different functionality can be added to the card to personalise it so one person could be using it for welfare payments and another for car park payment, and no-one else can tell,’ she said.

The card uses a multi site management system developed by MH Systems to integrate with tills, customer management and bookings system on Toshiba ST-60 touch screens.

Citizens will soon be able to load it with credits or cash online.

'We are currently implementing the online facility where parents can load value using credit or debit cards via the internet from home or through the PayPoint sites installed in 10s of 1000s of newsagents, and post offices,' a council spokeswoman said.

Some 60,000 cards have so far been issued and over 120 Toshiba terminals are installed at sites across the city.

It can be used to help secure access to council properties.

‘Using the card to enter high-rise flat council properties instead of a fob system would increase security and quality of life for tenants. Fobs get handed around but people don’t want to hand over their cards as it holds their entitlements,’ said Burt.

Security and operability of the system is ensured by storing cardholders details stored on the card rather than the database.

‘Information is stored on the card’s chip which has the most up-to-date information rather than the database,’ said Burt.

The card can also cut council costs.

‘Using the card for car parking will save the council the cost of having to collect cash from machines,’ said Burt.

Another idea is to improve the environment through reverse vending machines where money is added to cards when holders return empties to vending machines.

‘There are so many potential uses, but we evaluate everything on a business case,’ said Burt.