Healthy Start Prepaid Cards

The NHSBSA is a Special Health Authority and an Arm's Length Body of the Department of Health and Social Care. We provide a range of critical central services to NHS organisations (our 'clients'), NHS contractors, health bodies, patients and the public (our 'customers').
The NHSBSA requires the delivery of payments to citizens who are eligible in accordance with the Healthy Start Scheme and Welfare Food (Amendment) Regulations 2005. The NHSBSA processes applications, performs eligibility checks and calculates the payments due on a rolling 4-week cycle for every beneficiary. The typical monthly payment for a beneficiary is currently £17.00.
Payments are currently made to beneficiaries by adding funds to a pre-paid card, which the cardholder can then use to buy healthy food items from retailers. Once an application is received and accepted, a prepaid card is sent by post to the beneficiary, along with a carrier letter and Healthy Start information leaflet. The 4-digit PIN code is sent separately. Cardholders are required to activate the card either by using an interactive telephone system or by calling NHSBSA to pass verification and activate the card. Use of the card is limited by way of specific Merchant Category Codes being blocked and currently online purchases are not enabled. It is not possible to use the card to withdraw cash from an ATM.
The NHSBSA's current solution is cloud based and has integration with The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to facilitate eligibility checks. The NHSBSA application communicates with DWP and the current solution provider via API functionality (RestFUL API requests) – to perform checks, request payments and gather payment data for analytics and service improvement. NHSBSA colleagues have access to the solution provider platform to manage accounts and make specific requests such as PIN reminders and card replacements as well as putting accounts on hold.
At this stage we are seeking high-level input to enable us to assess...