Dinner Money Gone Missing, School Not Helpful

[sweetiesue]

My dd came home last night with a note saying she was 3 meals in debt on her school meals card and could I please settle the debt asap. AIBU to ask for a print out of all transaction on card from school to prove they are at fault?
To give you some background info, the school operate a cashless catering facility where you credit a swipe card with funds at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, termly) which enables the child to "buy" their meal and the card is debited accordingly. Since its introduction over a year ago I have sent a cheque on a weekly basis to cover the meals required for that week (at start of term I also credited it with 2 extra meals for emergencies etc). The cheque is dealt with by the school and they update the card. The alternative is for dd to take cash into school and credit the card at a special machine.
Now all cheques have been processed and the money has been taken from my bank account but somehow has not been credited to her card. School say it is dd fault for not crediting the card, but she has nothing to do with it.
I keep careful records of when dd has school meals and how much is on her card and according to my calculations the cost of 5 meals has disappeared (2 spare meals plus the 3 she is in debt)
AIBU to request printed records of all transactions on the card?

Help and guidance required

YANBU - yes definitely you should be able to ask for this facility... if it were a shop/elec company/any other money making organisation you wouldn't think twice.
If the money has left your account, you need to know where it has gone.
Although is there a chance your DD has paid for something for a friend and therefore has less money than she should have?

Of course you're not being unreasonable. Simply put the last two paragraphs of your post into a letter to the school and ask to see records for the card.

Either they haven't credited the money, double transactions have occurred, or she's bought meals for other children.; Either way you need to see the itemised list.

Put it in writing the cheque numbers, the dates and the amounts and the dates they cleared your account, advise that they have not updated the card one payment that you can prove they have received.

Further advise it is an administration error on their part and not the fault of your DD.

To be honest if it were me, I'd just stump up. I can see that its the principle but at the same time, it's a few quid and life's really too short to be farting around over a few quid on school dinners.

There's also every chance your DD has bought a meal for someone else or perhaps ate more on a few occasions (unless the meals are set price which would be a bit weird).

Def hasn't bought for someone else as only dd can use her card for 1 meal per day and cannot buy 2+ meals with it. Set price for two course lunch per day, no options or additions possible.
Looking back it looks like two cheques must have been used to credit another card leaving dd short. Just need to track down how and when.
Have just spoken to deputy head and he will organise a print out of transaction on her card but cannot give me anything else due to data protection. Might help but best it will do is show card hasn't been credited on appropriate dates.
The saga continues.....

But you can prove they've recieved the cheques and the money has gone from your account so I can't see what the probloem is. The school cannot refuse to set this right.

OK read the print out from the school, cheque sent on 21/02/11 for w/b 21/02/11 has not been credited to dd's account but has left my bank. Just need to find out whose card it was credited too. DD has obviously been in debt for at least three weeks (on and off due to other cheques being credited correctly) will be asking what going on and how to prevent it. Until they find out whose card has got the money we can't do much more. Think will send dd packed lunches until sorted out to prevent further confusion.

No don't send packed lunches if you want her to have school dinners. This is not your problem - the school need to be sorting it out, not you. Just call them every couple of days until they get their arses into gear. From your point of view it doesn't matter whose card it was credited to, the school need to refund that relevant amount onto your daughter's card immediately. Lat them chase up the overpayment on the other card to get it back - their problem.

There's no data protection issue here as you do not need to know anything about whose card the money was credited to. You have proof that you have made a payment which was not credited to your child's card and therefore the school should credit it immediately. It is up to them to recoup the money if they've put it on someone else's card.

It is up to the school to sort out-but how do the school credit her card?

We have a similar system but we put money on a bank card which daughter has to "activate" herself at the machine in the school canteen.

The cards are kept in the classrooms in the school and issued to the child each lunchtime to go get their meal. The dining centre then retain the cards and return them to the school office at end of lunchtime, who in turn send them back to the classrooms. Meant to reduce chance of cards being lost.
The school office collect all cheques from the classrooms on a Monday morning, log who they have received them from (but not amount)and send cheques to the dining centre. In the dining centre the admin person (employed by the contractors not the school) enters the amount to be credited onto each account using a computer program linked to the system. If you send cash the child is responsible for going to the top-up machine at break time and topping up the card manually (not something I am happy for my child to do, as she is then wholly responsible for the cash and the topping up) Then as a meal is "bought" the card is swiped at a computer terminal by a member of staff at the dining centre and the cost debited from the balance.
The school are passing blame onto dining centre now cos they do not actually credit the accounts. Still doesn't solve the problem of money going missing.

What a palava!

We put money on the card at the bank.
No matter how much is in the account, there is at most only 3 meals worth of money accessible should the card be lost or stolen-and only accessible at the machine in the canteen.

How old are the children, though?

my boys high school have the new fingerprint cashless system,havent used yet but they have the account ready if i do want them to use it,they have to scan thier print and use a card to pay for lunch,you can top up online and also pay for school trips too

Yes, there is room for error with this system.
Unfortunately the owners of the account that your cheque has been credited to may never realise they have extra funds if they never have a reason to request a statement. The error is with the admin person. He or she should be able to check back to see where your cheque has been credited. Even if it is just checking all the other accounts to see if they were credited with two cheques on one day.

Could you suggest to your school to go over to computerised ParentPay? Dd2 tells me when her card is low and I just log in to the system and pay with my debit card. You can access fully itemised bills as well.

"Yes, there is room for error with this system."

I agree.

I thought that the whole point was that the children didn´t have to take cash to school & that the "canteen people" didn´t have to muck about with money-in any form either.

I wonder why the school think your daughter should have done it-when it´s not possible for her to do so if you pay by cheque!

YANBU But you don't need to wait for the school to find out where the money went, as someone else said that is there problem. I would be demanding my money got credited my DD's account without further delay, I would also ask for statements/receipts in future