The U.S. Treasury Department plans to launch a pilot program Thursday to deliver tax refunds through prepaid debit cards, an effort to cut the expense of paper checks and aid lower-income taxpayers who don’t have bank accounts.

About 600,000 low- and moderate-income taxpayers nationwide, a slice of those earning about $35,000 or less annually, will receive letters inviting them to activate a debit card that can receive direct deposits.

The program will cost the government about $1.5 million and marks the latest federal effort to send fewer payments by mail. The U.S. still issues an estimated 45 million paper checks a year for tax refunds. Each one costs the government about $1, including the cost of processing roughly 600,000 claims a year for missing checks. Each payment by direct deposit costs the U.S. about 10 cents.

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