Internet banking fails the ‘vulnerable’
More than a million low-vision, elderly and ‘‘neuro-different’’ New Zealanders have been let down by the withdrawal of cheques, and the closure of bank branches, MPs have been told.
National Party MP Andrew Bayly called for an inquiry into how branch closures, and the ditching of cheques, including by government agencies like ACC, Inland Revenue and Kiwibank, had made it harder for ‘‘vulnerable’’ people to manage their money lives. Bayly called for the inquiry after hearing the story of a dyslexic Pukekohe man too afraid to use internet banking, who was told by his bank to drive to another town to a branch to see a teller.
‘‘He couldn’t do internet banking because he didn’t want to transpose numbers, and when he spoke to his bank they suggested he should drive to Hamilton, a distance of about 90km, which obviously made me think about what I should be doing for vulnerable people,’’ Bayly told Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee.
Bayly called on the select committee to investigate whether enough was being done to ensure vulnerable people would still be able to manage their money lives independently after the age of cheques passed.
The big four Australian banks will all phase out cheques this year, while Kiwibank stopped issuing cheques last year, saying at the time that 99 per cent of its customer payments were made by other methods.
Bayly’s call for an inquiry was supported by Federated Farmers, Blind Low Vision NZ, Grey Power, and the Dyslexia Society.
The four groups told MPs the people most affected by the withdrawal of cheques, and the closure of bank branches, were some elderly people, people with disabilities, and people who could not afford devices, or who were in areas of low connectivity, like many farmers.
Guy Pope-Mayell, chairman of the Dyslexia Society, said about a million people were neuro-different in ways which made internet banking stressful and risky. He called the decision by the IRD, ACC and Kiwibank to stop accepting cheques callous and short-sighted, and said it infringed the basic human rights of about 1 million people.
About 10 per cent of the population had dyslexia, he said.
A further 20 per cent collectively had some form of ‘‘neuro-difference’’.