Council 'working hard' to restore independent payments to city clients
Wolverhampton Council has apologised to people from the area who have been waiting to receive independent living payments after delays in payments
Vulnerable people who are under care packages and companies have had to wait over a week for money from the Appointeeship scheme run under licence from Wolverhampton City Council by Prepaid Financial Services (PFS)
PFS who operate Independent Living Brokeridge Partnerships providing prepaid card systems nationwide had to make urgent changes to their computer system on Monday July 14 resulting in delays.
It left people in Wolverhampton and elsewhere without funds from that date, with a number of people contacting the Express & Star to say they were struggling without them.
A Locality Manager from one care company,, who has six clients in the city, said it had caused all of them a lot of stress and worry.
The person, who didn't want to be named, said: "These people rely on the payments and whilst there is a reason behind it, all they know is they haven't received their money.
"Most won't have much in savings and we don't have funds we can provide in the meantime.
"It has caused a lot of stress and worry for them and their carers, and for us as a company in trying to manage and deal with the situation."
A spokesperson for the City of Wolverhampton Council said: “Like many councils across the country, we have been impacted by a national issue affecting PFS's systems.
“To help people affected in Wolverhampton, we are carrying out manual workarounds which is enabling us to get money to the most vulnerable, for example those without support from a care provider.
“We are meeting the provider to get daily updates and we are hopeful that the situation will be rectified as quickly as possible.”
A spokesperson for PFS said they are working hard to restore all services and fixing the problems as soon as possible.
