Economy minister urges everyone to spend high street voucher before deadline

According to the Department for Economy, there is a small proportion of the cards being sent in the closing days of the scheme. Credit: UTV

It's the final weekend to use the high-street voucher scheme.

With only two days left before it closes, the Economy Minister has urged everyone with any balance left on their card to spend it now.

The pre-paid card worth £100 opened to applicants in September and will close at midnight on Sunday 19 December.

Gordon Lyon's says over £131m has already been injected into the local economy because of the scheme.

According to the Department for Economy there is a small proportion of the cards being sent in the closing days of the scheme.

In a statement, they said they are "monitoring" the cohort of those cards and ensured that the applicants won't miss out due to postal delays.

It continued and said: "These applications included errors or were from those who did not respond to requests for information in the scheme’s application and verification time period.

"They were included because the Department wanted to ensure the most amount of people could support local businesses and was therefore verifying applications up to the very last minute.

With this weekend expected to be busier than normal because of Christmas shopping the Minister reminded cardholders to shop safely by wearing a face covering, maintaining social distancing and use contactless payments where possible.