Schools are demanding a payment provider which has ceased operating in the UK refund their parents in full amid accusations that cash is being “withheld”.
sQuid provided parents with an online account where funds could be uploaded to pay for school dinners and trips – but shut up shop last Friday. Around 600 schools used it.
However, the firm will only refund parents for balances over £10, and those wanting to withdraw their cash must pay a £10 “administration fee”.
Rob Pointen, CEO of Weduc which had partnered with sQuid, said the decision to deny parents refunds appeared “wholly unjustifiable” in an email he sent to the firm.
“Parents deposited their money in good faith, and it is wholly unacceptable for them to be penalised simply because your company is shutting down,” he wrote in a letter to sQuid’s CEO last Friday.
‘It’s just very wrong’
While parents tend to keep small amounts on sQuid accounts, schools said it can add up. One trust claimed sQuid currently holds about £43,000 deposited by parents at its schools. Others said the firm was holding between £5,000 and £8,000.
“That money means a lot to some of our parents,” Harj Oghra, CFO at Dormers Wells Learning Trust, which serves a deprived area of London, said.
“Three or four pounds for a family that’s struggling to pay rent or pay bills … That buys a lot for their child at breaktime,” she said. “It is just very wrong.”
Anne Marie Bray, business manager at Clive CoE Primary School in Shropshire, said: “When families are struggling, it’s even more vital, but actually they have an obligation to refund everybody.
“Otherwise, they’re making a massive profit from something that was beyond our control.”
Schools said they were also frustrated that sQuid had left them with just five weeks to find a new provider, with some still in the process of transferring, according to Pointen.
“If [sQuid] had given us three months, we could have avoided any of the anxiety for schools and parents,” he added.
Adam Smith, sQuid’s CEO, said it had closed UK operations “because of increasingly adverse trading conditions during and post-Covid which have made the business unsustainable”.
He said the company “has been carrying out an orderly exit, leaving time for schools to find alternative providers while continuing to support services for schools and parents.”
He added: “The company has continued to provide a refund service. We are doing so in accordance with our terms and conditions. We understand if some schools are upset that we are making charges.”
Moving the goalposts
The issue has been compounded as parents were told they could claim full refunds on their remaining balances before April 14. But schools say the firm enforced the £10 admin fee from as early as mid-March.
“How can you charge an admin fee when you’re the one shutting down?” Oghra added. “We are helpless because it’s not our money.”
Smith said there had been an “element of miscommunication” in the company’s statement about the April 14 deadline. While sQuid had initially waived charges, it was now “in a situation where we’re no longer able to do that”.
He encouraged parents in deprived areas to contact sQuid to “review” their refunds.
But schools have also complained about the time taken for their emails and calls to be answered since the firm shut.
Smith said he was “very, very surprised” to hear that schools had had difficulty communicating. The company had “worked very hard” to maintain its customer service.
Parents encounter issues
Nathan Jeremiah, COO at Archway Learning Trust, said the firm took eight days to comply with the school’s request to completely disable the “auto top-off” function. Smith disputed this and said the function was turned off after four days.
But Jeremiah added some of his parents requesting refunds on balances above £100 had encountered issues, and was also critical of the firm removing the function allowing refund requests through their app. Instead, parents must log into their accounts on the firm’s website.
Across the trust, Jeremiah said sQuid currently holds credit balances totalling more than £40,000.
Smith said the large balance was “not the result of [sQuid’s] failure” and money was being returned “in accordance with the terms and conditions”.
“I am therefore not quite sure as to what the issue actually is,” he added.
He said many schools had planned alternative arrangements “without any issues at all”.
But Dave Watts, school administrator at Clive CoE Primary School, said: “It’s not something schools would choose to do halfway through the year. We’ve had to move very, very quickly. It’s been quite a stressful time.”
