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“Alternative options, including prepaid cards, continue to be evaluated as a means of providing payments to beneficiaries who do not voluntarily enrol” in direct deposit plans, a Public Works spokeswoman said in an email to the Citizen. “The government will ensure that everyone receives the payments that are owed to them.”

While novel in Canada, prepaid cards for government payments have been used in other places.

In the United States, Visa offers a prepaid credit card that governments and public agencies can use to transfer money to citizens who either don’t have a bank account, or where they are cutting back on the cost of paper cheques. The cards can be used to buy goods, and they also work at bank machines to withdraw cash.

Some experts suggest there are benefits to prepaid cards if direct deposit isn’t an option: the cards are cheaper than printing, processing and mailing paper cheques; there are fewer opportunities for fraud; and the money arrives in recipients’ hands faster. Public Works says each direct deposit payment costs the government 11 cents, compared to 83 cents for each cheque.

“An electronic transaction is cheaper than a paper one,” said Mati Dubrovinsky, a senior policy analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute.

“These are really new technologies and people are adapting to them. But overall, it’s going to reduce costs to society as a whole.”

But while half of respondents in the government survey liked the idea of re-loadable cards, that number could have been higher “if the concept of no fees associated with the cards had been added to the description of the re-loadable card,” the report reads. Banks and credit card companies tend to charge maintenance, network and withdrawal fees whenever a prepaid card is used.