24,000 households receive new debit food card

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24,000 households receive new debit food card

Over 24,000 households are expected to benefit from the new food card distributed by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry, the card is built on a close loop system which allows only the pool of participating merchants to administer services strictly for food items. Merchants are required to acquire new card machines to facilitate the new debit card.

The card has its own physical features, which allows easy management, monitoring of usage and reconciliation for both the bank and the Ministry.

When making purchases, each customer presents the card at the cashier’s register of the grocery or supermarket.  Each card has an individual serial number and each client will be assigned a pin number in order to access funds once they swipe their cards.

The card values are as follows:

1 – 3 persons         $510.00

3 – 5 persons        $650.00

5 persons              $800.00

In anticipation that they will be transitioned directly onto the new system, beneficiaries were invited to become re-certified during a process which took place from September 2018 to present. Following the exercise, over 14,000 persons were removed from the system, notwithstanding the numerous efforts made to contact these persons.

Card delivery to approved clients commenced in Tobago from November 25 and at selected TTPost outlets from Thursday 5 December 2019.

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