ALL CHANGE: How cashless society harms millions
As Tesco opens another card-only supermarket, charges on ATM withdrawals and bank closures are putting the most vulnerable in society at risk
‘It hits the poorest. If you can only afford to take out £10 then you’re being penalised’
ADAILY Express probe reveals today that the quality of life for tens of thousands of the most deprived people in Britain is being damaged by our drive towards a cashless society.
As Tesco opens its second cashless store, more than 9,500 free ATMs have been taken out of circulation in the past two years – equivalent to 17 per cent of the country’s entire network – and 1,200 bank branches have closed.
An independent review says Britain has reached a tipping point, warning that cash could become almost obsolete within a decade – rather than 2035, as had been initially predicted.
Those worst affected are the poor and elderly, who often rely on small amounts of cash to pay a cleaner or neighbour who fetches a pint of milk.
They are also having to take out larger quantities of cash to offset the costs of using the ATM.
One such pensioner is Mae Purcell who has had to dip into her savings account.
The diabetes sufferer said the sole cash machine local to her home in Barton, Oxford, began introducing withdrawal charges.
So far she has taken out £150 from her savings’ account because she could not afford to keep paying the 99p charge on smaller cash withdrawals.
“This has hit the poorest in our community and that’s wrong. I don’t want to take big amounts out, but if you can only afford to take out £10 then you are being penalised,” says Mae, 70.
“I’ve had to take out extra money because I’m not always well enough to make the bus journey into town to a free ATM.”
The country’s biggest retailer, Tesco, opened a new cashless store in central London last week, meaning that only customers with debit, credit cards or Apple Pay can shop there.
The independent Access to Cash review panel has been established to consider consumer requirements for cash over the next five to 15 years.
Chair of the panel, Natalie Ceeney, warns: “A growing number of retailers are going cashless as they find the costs of banking cash rise, particularly as branches close. It makes it more challenging to deposit their cash takings. This is already starting to exclude people.”
Stephen Crabb, MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, says the march towards a cashless society will hit those who can afford it least.
“A lack of cash is an attack on the most vulnerable people in our society,” he claims. “There is a danger of cash deserts emerging in areas where there are no ATMs or bank branches.
“Many small businesses have yet to make the move to contactless or digital payments because mobile and internet coverage is so weak in rural areas.
“I worry that no one in Government is thinking hard about what this means for society.”
Fewer than one in 10 payments are expected to be made in hard currency within a decade and Access to Cash has urged the Government to ensure in the next Budget that cash remains available for some sectors of society. Shoppers at the cashless Tesco in High Holborn, London, agree that areas outside metropolitan areas will be hit the hardest. “In places like this it doesn’t matter but in communities I think it’s a bad idea,” says builder Tim Walker, 52. “My father is 82 and he would never be able to manage without cash – he can’t even remember his pin number – and you will find there is a good cohort of people, certainly for the next 20 years, that’ll need it.” Tesco, which introduced its first cashless store at its Welwyn Garden City HQ in Hertfordshire in 2018, revealed that cash now makes up just 20 per cent of consumer purchases.
“There are individuals who are solely reliant on cash and they are perhaps already the most isolated and invisible to society,” says Jane Vass, director of policy and research at Age UK.
“This can be the sort of thing that tips a person over the threshold into needing formal care. “There is also the question of dignity. People want to manage their own affairs.
“For individuals with dementia, having that little bit of cash in their pocket without having to use a card is tangible.
“People of all ages use cash because then they can budget.
“It’s not so easy to find out how much you’ve spent on a Chip and Pin system.”
CONTACTLESS buses are already becoming commonplace – Newport in Wales joined the cashless scheme at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Age UK has found that two fifths of local councils now only accept claims for rent and council tax support via their websites.
Mae and her neighbours in Barton live in one of the most deprived communities in England and-Wales.
A quarter of the 5,500 residents is over 65 and they were encouraged to withdraw small amounts of cash as a way of budgeting by Barton Community Association. Sandra Holden, the association’s company secretary, says the community went into panic when the ATM fee was introduced in December 2019.
“One man told me, ‘I’m going to be facing charges of almost £30 a month if I follow your advice’,” she says.
“It hit us in the face that our guidance to them was now the wrong thing to do.”
Since the UK’s biggest cash machine operator Link set up a £1million community fund for so-called cash deserts last October – with the aim of providing between 100 and 200 new cash machines – it has received 3,400 requests.
Barton has been provisionally granted a free machine, with a final decision expected within the next fortnight. Nick Quinn, head of final inclusion at Link, says private operators of their machines levy charges to cover running costs. Link wants consumers to be able to access free cashback in stores – a scheme that Visa is also already trialling.