LIU Members Struggle with New Digi Wallet Payment System

Members of the Leadership Intervention Unit (LIU) have raised concerns over the organization’s new payment method. The men, alleged gang members, have had trouble spending their salaries since the unit started utilizing Digi Wallet to disburse funds. Some of the men have complained that using Digi wallet limits where they can make purchases since many businesses are not utilizing e-payment methods. Dominique Noralez, Chairperson of the LIU, spoke on the issue today and explained that it sought to increase the efficiency of the disbursement.

Dominique Noralez, Chairperson, Leadership Intervention Unit: “It put very many people in one space every two weeks, right, which is not as safe for a clientele. And then it pushed many of our people to one spot to pick up cheques which is also not as safe. And then the cheque system, we just needed to have a bit more grasp on how people are using their funds and how often it moves and making sure that everyone who’s on the program and who is employed by the program gets their money, all of their money in their hand, also keeping in mind the social security contributions. And so we thought that given the challenges some of our persons face with entering the banking system, because as you know the bank reserves the right to reject any client from banking with them we decided to use the Digi Wallet system, which also if they’re already integrated in the system if you know anything about this ewallet they can still interact with the banking system if they’re already in the system. And so we wanted to make it easy and also keep our systems as accountable and transparent as possible where people can have multiple places to go cash these cheques and also can actually have a debit card of some sorts to see what funding they have available based on where they are for the pay period.”

Noralez added that all members received training in how the new system using Digi Wallet would work, so she thinks some of the complaints are unwarranted.

Dominique Noralez, Chairperson, Leadership Intervention Unit: “I know that we had a few issues with people’s card. There was a bit of issue with scanning. But all of these things, when you have a program that serves 300 people these things pop up. And we expected some of these things to happen. And then we tried our best, our absolute best, to ensure that they didn’t happen and have fail-safes in place. So while, of course, with progress comes a little bit of problems. There is nothing stopping us from fixing them. In fact, my entire morning has been dedicated to listening to the persons on the program, our client beneficiaries and ensuring that we reassure them that they’ll be able to get their cards working and that they’ll be able to get the best service at some of the agents. We did not move around this transition willy-nilly. This has, like I said, been in the plan for a year. We’ve had two sets of trainings over the past few months. In fact periods of training, so one week of training where we accommodate people based on their mobility and security but also another set where we integrated our entire orientation onto the LIU program, which includes TUBAL, which includes the responsibilities of the beneficiaries which includes of course DigiWallet. When it comes to addressing that issue or that very incomplete concern as it relates to people having trouble accessing their funds the training explicitly states along with the pamphlet that they got along with my one-on-one interactions with them and of course our friends at DigiWallet, there are several places that you can go to. In researching before we did this transition we asked clients where they would go to cash your cheques, many of them went to 88, many of them went to Kim’s and other places but primarily Kim’s and 88 but primarily Kim’s shop behind Gwen Lizzaraga. Kim’s is an agent. Many of our clients can still go there. 88 is an agent. Toto’s is an agent. Persons can even go to many of the DigiWallet stores to get access to their funding. And so it’s not that we took their opportunity away and the fluidity of their funds, in fact, we gave them more options.”

The LIU was established in 2021 to tackle crime and violence by providing job opportunities and life skills training.