Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of security and fraud risks posed by Post Office Card Account (POca) voucher alternatives offered in £100 denominations.

The new Payment Exception Service has been designed as a simple service to ensure customers have access to cash. Vouchers will be uploaded to a card or sent electronically via SMS text or email. Customers will need to cash the full amount of the voucher (vouchers are maximum £100) but do not have to cash all of their vouchers at the same time. This is a similar process to when customers used to be issued with Order Books and Girocheques.

PayPoint retailers and the Post Office will ask for customer ID when someone cashes a voucher. Customers are provided with the list of acceptable ID in their welcome letter from the new PES supplier.

In designing the new service, the same levels of security have been applied as they were to HMG PES. Fraud will be treated as a business as usual process in line with existing DWP Policy.