As society increasingly moves away from physical cash, IT Services provider, CGI, has funded new contactless payments donation points in Glasgow, to help the city’s homeless. The initiative to help people involved in street begging is in collaboration with Glasgow City Council as well as various local charities and the city’s Health & Social Care Partnership (GCHSCP).
According to statistics compiled by the charity Shelter, there were more than 30,000 people assessed as homeless in Scotland in 2019. Glasgow has become the latest city to install contactless donation technology and the first of the new CGI funded payments points was unveiled this week, in a ceremony attended by former “old-firm” rivals Mark Hateley and Tosh McKinlay.
CGI operates a “metro” model and typically locates resources and employees close to its major contracts. As part of this ethos, the company also invests in communities and supports local initiatives. As a leading provider of IT services to Glasgow City Council, CGI has funded the new payments technology which enables members of the public to make donations via contactless bank cards.
Despite having monitored payments technology trends for many years, I only considered the impact on homeless people for the first time earlier this year, when a Big Issue seller produced an izettle device so I could pay for my copy. The Glasgow scheme highlights just how ubiquitous electronic payments have become. The new contactless donation points are a fantastic idea and will help a vulnerable segment in society who might otherwise have suffered from the increasing scarcity of physical cash.