Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson has stated that the number of remaining MiCard users has been reduced to approximately 300, with efforts ongoing to transition all benefit and pension recipients to bank payments.
Existing MiCards will cease to function on December 31.
Answering questions in the House of Keys, Dr Allinson said he expected that around 200 recipients who have not yet engaged with the Social Security Division will remain beyond the December 31 deadline.
For those individuals, payments will switch to government cheques from the new year, which Dr Allinson said “will be sent government checks which can be cashed at a post office”.
Where a regular bank account is not possible, a replacement MiCard will be issued.
On support for vulnerable individuals, Dr Allinson said Social Security officers had physically reached out and identified potentially vulnerable cases from the list.
“Proxy payments can be set up by Social Security, and that has been far more acceptable in a number of cases,” he added.
In response to concerns about banking access, the minister said work with banks to help those lacking photographic ID, stating the process had been “really quite successful, helping people who previously have really struggled to get bank accounts on this island”.