Call to keep cash flowing after crisis

BANKS should have a universal service obligation on them to guarantee access to cash for everyone, to avoid the nation sleepwalking into becoming a cashless society, Age UK has urged.

The charity said similar obligations exist for services such as water, electricity and the post.

Age UK warned that being cut off from cash and banking services is tantamount to being excluded from society.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “It’s time for the Government to recognise how important banknotes and coins are to all our lives and treat the cash system as the essential piece of infrastructure it is – just like utilities, post and broadband.”

The charity pointed to figures from the Financial Conduct Authority’s financial lives survey showing that around 2.4 million people aged 65 and over in the UK relied on cash to a great extent in their day-to-day life – representing around a fifth (21%) of older people.

Cash use has plunged during the coronavirus pandemic – but Age UK said it would be a mistake to assume that everyone is willing or able to make all their financial transactions digitally.

A YouGov survey in January 2021 found more than half of people aged 65-plus across Britain had used cash within the previous week.