5 reasons why MATs need to go cashless after Covid-19

You need to do away with cash payments. Cash is a safeguarding risk – and not just because of bullying.

In fact, after Covid-19, all schools should be looking to do away with cash payments. Here’s why.

Cash can act as a viral sponge

London metropolitan university conducted a study into contamination on a range of coins and banknotes. Shockingly, they found that up to 19 strains of bacteria can live for an extended period of time on cash.

In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, the need to avoid bacterial and viral transmission in schools is clearer than ever. However, cash is an easy way to spread bacteria throughout the school, especially if it’s being used in the school canteen.

Cash is contaminated with drug residue

Class A drug residue is found on over three quarters of paper banknotes. This number is staggering; it means that every day, there are a significant number of students that walk into school and go to their classes with drug residue in their pockets.

In particular, cocaine residue is a real problem and part of the reason banks periodically take notes out of circulation – in fact, over £15 million is destroyed every year for this purpose. Cocaine can cling to bank notes for years without deteriorating.

Shockingly, because of their use in drug consumption, bank notes can even be contaminated with hepatitis C, a potentially life-threatening virus.

Simply put, cash can be a safeguarding nightmare.

Paying on card is the new norm

Covid-19 has pushed people even further towards preferring card and contactless payments. As cash finds less and less use in society, it makes less sense to force your students and parents to pay using it. It's a great equaliser, as no one will even know who claims free school meals anymore.

Students and parents aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit, either. Schools can cut down on their banking fees and simplify the payments process.

Cash slows down administration

Counting cash, like all manual tasks, is prone to human error, and there’s often no way to see where you’ve gone wrong. This can slow down the whole process and eat into valuable administrator time.

However, cashless systems such as +Pay have a robust digital audit trail and take care of all the hard work for you. Balances can be instantly displayed and reconciled without any human intervention.

+Pay is now integrated with PS Financials

If you’re interested in moving towards digital transactions at your school, you may be interested in +Pay. Now that it’s integrated directly with PS Financials, it can take care of all your school payment needs.

Parents love it as it’s easy to make payments for meals, trips, clubs and school shops. They can even pay with a method of their choice, including:

• PayPal
• Cash with PayPoint
• Credit or debit card

Even better, once they have paid, those transactions are automatically consolidated against your financial records, so everything taken care of. You can eliminate bank fees overnight while making the payment process easier for everyone.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch; we’d love to explain how it works in more detail.