Often illegally traded, used by unauthorized individuals or used for unauthorized purposes, current subsidies are not meeting the objectives of their issuance. Smart cards are the most effective tool to reduce such fraud by providing secure identification of the beneficiary, enabling conditional use of allocated subsidies, and eliminating the possibility of illegal trade. Smart card solutions can monitor beneficiaries compliance with requirements established for conditional subsidies, such as benefits that are contingent on mandatory health check ups. Also, by storing subsidies in electronic form, recipients are unable to illegally trade them for other goods. In this way, beneficiaries are protected from the theft or loss of their benefits, as administrators are able to invalidate lost cards in real time, recuperating any remaining unused values.
Administrators can then reissue a new card with the same values to the beneficiary.
The diversity of social assistance benefits in each country reflects the diverse needs of its underprivileged population. As such, administrators need an efficient way to provide specific benefits to some groups of the population while providing different benefits to others. In addition, the varying length and conditions of these benefits need to be monitored and managed to ensure correct administration. Smart cards provide the data flexibility and management capabilities to allow administrators to manage several benefit programs for varying populations without issuing a new card per benefit program or expiration period. Specific benefit applications with expiration dates can be downloaded directly to the beneficiary s smart social assistance card and tailored to that beneficiary s specific needs.