Britain is becoming a cashless society against the public’s will, a major new study has found, after the pandemic accelerated the switch to card and digital payments.
Around 10 million people, or one in five adults, would struggle to manage in a society without cash, a report from the Royal Society of Arts commissioned by cash machine network Link found.
The older generation in particular is being left behind. One in three people dependent on cash are above 65. Some four million of those who would struggle most without cash are over 65 years old.
This section of society would face increased isolation, difficulty budgeting and a greater risk of being defrauded without access to physical currency, the report warned. A further 2.5 million of the most vulnerable were between 55 and 64.
This comes after the pandemic dramatically accelerated the country’s move away from notes and coins. The public now withdraws around £100m less from cash machines each day compared to before the pandemic, according to Link.
Meanwhile banks used Covid as an opportunity to accelerate their branch closure programmes. Last summer 99 branches closed their doors on average every month, according to Which?, the consumer group.
Cash machines are also disappearing. The number of free cash points has fallen by a quarter since January 2018, with fewer than 50,000 remaining. Some machines have started to charge for withdrawals, causing usage to fall.
The lack of bank branches has made it more difficult for retailers to deposit or access notes and coins which in turn has “nudged” some retailers and restaurants into refusing cash altogether, Natalie Ceeney of the Access to Cash review said.
Meanwhile the proportion of the population wholly reliant on physical currency has remained strong in the past three years, despite cash’s decline in that time, according to the RSA’s Mark Hall.
Mr Hall said: “For millions of people, their relationship with cash is critical to the way they manage their weekly budget. It’s vital that the dash to digital doesn’t disenfranchise anyone, especially with the cost-of-living crisis putting such significant strain on family finances right now.”
Around 80pc of people most dependent on cash use it to budget, with seven in 10 claiming they rely on cash to prevent them from falling into debt. Some 90pc of this group were concerned they would leave themselves open to fraud if they were forced to switch to digital payment methods.
The survey found the wider public also worried that a cashless society would reduce their control over finances and debt, lead to higher exposure to fraud, lower their privacy, and increase isolation.
Rural and remote communities were particularly concerned that poor broadband and mobile connectivity would make it harder for them to go fully digital, the report found.
Overall, 23 million people said that using cash made them feel more in control of their finances. Two-thirds were concerned about fraud when making payments and 57pc were concerned about privacy.
Meanwhile separate research commissioned by the Telegraph earlier this year found that six in 10 shoppers would support a move to make cash acceptance compulsory.
The survey, of more than half a million shoppers, also found that nearly half of the British public purposely avoid retailers that do not accept physical currency and that more than half of people believe the country is being pushed into cashlessness against its will.
I just realised apart from one vending machine I haven’t used cash since March 2020. Can’t say I really miss it, but it would be a shame to lose that option.
“Against the publics will”! Really? Straw pole in my office has support for a cashless society.
Got to say, as an oldie, that I like as many options as possible, and that includes cash for small ad-hock purchases.
As we get older small screens do present a problem for the eyes and fingers. Not to mention, new tech being more difficult to get to grips with for many.
Then there is the separate, but important aspect of personal information harvesting, tracking and corporate abuse of such. Cash is faceless, and as secure as your pocket.
If you fancy a little recreational smoke, for example, your supply is unlikely to take mastercard. 🙂
It’s a Telegraph article so it’s obviously concerned with its target demographic but this is also a real issue for those with serious mental health conditions and/or learning impairments who are essentially allocated a budget on a per day basis by their carers (formal or otherwise).
They can struggle with managing money and physical cash is easier for them to understand and cope with than the highly abstracted concept of money that our increasingly cashless society uses.
Just as your kid can understand how to use their pocket money but fail to grasp the implications of buying virtual shit with your credit card details on their Nintendo GameBox due to lacking the cognitive abilities or development to properly understand what they’re doing, the same can be true for those with serious mental health conditions and/or learning impairments.
That’s also why any suggestions such as giving them a payment card loaded only with a set amount they can spend each day don’t necessarily work. Cash removes some of the abstraction about money and makes it easier to understand.
This may be a silly question, but let’s say we no longer have cash, it’s all just cards, no coins no notes, nothing. Would the UK save substantial money by not having to print, recycle, or design new currency?
so Piers Corbyn was right then. When his acolytes gave me a flyer at Speaker’s Corner it said we should ‘end the war on cash’ – which baffled me.
Could it be that the other stuff that I can’t even mention at Reddit may be true? (probably not actually).
I haven’t used cash since before Covid and don’t miss it one bit. My wallet can now just be used to house the 300 loyalty cards I have which most are slowly moving to phone QR codes etc.
I’m of a generation that has easily adapted to cashless, but I fear for those elderly people that still don’t trust the banks and has money stashed away, I fear for the homeless who will completely struggle even worst.
If they can freeze your bank account, is it really yours? Once they go fully cashless you won’t own anything. If you say something that government don’t want you to say, they will freeze your bank account and basically rob you. Cashless society is only good for richest people and rulers.
If I am on a big night out I like using cash as it helps me keep track. If I am pissed up I get a bit loose with it all and having a physical reminder helps.
I really don’t like the idea of a cashless society, just to put on my tin foil hat for a moment. I think it’s a ploy to give us less control over not only what we choose to do with our money but the privacy of what we choose to spend our money on.
The idea of having your entire worth held as a digital asset to which the bank or even the government could control, manipulate or even take away.
In a totalitarian regime what a cashless society would look like is having your entire bank account taken away from you for opinions of statements you gave online.
Will we get to that point idk but slippery slope is slippery for sure.
‘Now that we are a cashless society we will be imposing a 1.25% card sales fee on all transactions. This will be reviewed every 12 months and rise in line with inflation now that you have no choice but to use us.’
There’s yet another side to this, which is the added cost of paying by card. My local butcher has just got rid of his card machine after trialling it for the last few months, so we’re back to cash only. He was open about it: offered the regular customers the choice of keeping it with the transaction fees factored into the price of the meat, or or losing it and keeping the price of the meat the same.
It’s a horrifying prospect, but not surprising, given the way things are going.
We need an alternative to cash with the same functions that’s secure and separate from the banking system. This is where crypto comes in.
16 comments
Author Will Kirkman
Britain is becoming a cashless society against the public’s will, a major new study has found, after the pandemic accelerated the switch to card and digital payments.
Around 10 million people, or one in five adults, would struggle to manage in a society without cash, a report from the Royal Society of Arts commissioned by cash machine network Link found.
The older generation in particular is being left behind. One in three people dependent on cash are above 65. Some four million of those who would struggle most without cash are over 65 years old.
This section of society would face increased isolation, difficulty budgeting and a greater risk of being defrauded without access to physical currency, the report warned. A further 2.5 million of the most vulnerable were between 55 and 64.
This comes after the pandemic dramatically accelerated the country’s move away from notes and coins. The public now withdraws around £100m less from cash machines each day compared to before the pandemic, according to Link.
Meanwhile banks used Covid as an opportunity to accelerate their branch closure programmes. Last summer 99 branches closed their doors on average every month, according to Which?, the consumer group.
Cash machines are also disappearing. The number of free cash points has fallen by a quarter since January 2018, with fewer than 50,000 remaining. Some machines have started to charge for withdrawals, causing usage to fall.
The lack of bank branches has made it more difficult for retailers to deposit or access notes and coins which in turn has “nudged” some retailers and restaurants into refusing cash altogether, Natalie Ceeney of the Access to Cash review said.
Meanwhile the proportion of the population wholly reliant on physical currency has remained strong in the past three years, despite cash’s decline in that time, according to the RSA’s Mark Hall.
Mr Hall said: “For millions of people, their relationship with cash is critical to the way they manage their weekly budget. It’s vital that the dash to digital doesn’t disenfranchise anyone, especially with the cost-of-living crisis putting such significant strain on family finances right now.”
Around 80pc of people most dependent on cash use it to budget, with seven in 10 claiming they rely on cash to prevent them from falling into debt. Some 90pc of this group were concerned they would leave themselves open to fraud if they were forced to switch to digital payment methods.
The survey found the wider public also worried that a cashless society would reduce their control over finances and debt, lead to higher exposure to fraud, lower their privacy, and increase isolation.
Rural and remote communities were particularly concerned that poor broadband and mobile connectivity would make it harder for them to go fully digital, the report found.
Overall, 23 million people said that using cash made them feel more in control of their finances. Two-thirds were concerned about fraud when making payments and 57pc were concerned about privacy.
Meanwhile separate research commissioned by the Telegraph earlier this year found that six in 10 shoppers would support a move to make cash acceptance compulsory.
The survey, of more than half a million shoppers, also found that nearly half of the British public purposely avoid retailers that do not accept physical currency and that more than half of people believe the country is being pushed into cashlessness against its will.
I just realised apart from one vending machine I haven’t used cash since March 2020. Can’t say I really miss it, but it would be a shame to lose that option.
“Against the publics will”! Really? Straw pole in my office has support for a cashless society.
Got to say, as an oldie, that I like as many options as possible, and that includes cash for small ad-hock purchases.
As we get older small screens do present a problem for the eyes and fingers. Not to mention, new tech being more difficult to get to grips with for many.
Then there is the separate, but important aspect of personal information harvesting, tracking and corporate abuse of such. Cash is faceless, and as secure as your pocket.
If you fancy a little recreational smoke, for example, your supply is unlikely to take mastercard. 🙂
It’s a Telegraph article so it’s obviously concerned with its target demographic but this is also a real issue for those with serious mental health conditions and/or learning impairments who are essentially allocated a budget on a per day basis by their carers (formal or otherwise).
They can struggle with managing money and physical cash is easier for them to understand and cope with than the highly abstracted concept of money that our increasingly cashless society uses.
Just as your kid can understand how to use their pocket money but fail to grasp the implications of buying virtual shit with your credit card details on their Nintendo GameBox due to lacking the cognitive abilities or development to properly understand what they’re doing, the same can be true for those with serious mental health conditions and/or learning impairments.
That’s also why any suggestions such as giving them a payment card loaded only with a set amount they can spend each day don’t necessarily work. Cash removes some of the abstraction about money and makes it easier to understand.
This may be a silly question, but let’s say we no longer have cash, it’s all just cards, no coins no notes, nothing. Would the UK save substantial money by not having to print, recycle, or design new currency?
so Piers Corbyn was right then. When his acolytes gave me a flyer at Speaker’s Corner it said we should ‘end the war on cash’ – which baffled me.
Could it be that the other stuff that I can’t even mention at Reddit may be true? (probably not actually).
I haven’t used cash since before Covid and don’t miss it one bit. My wallet can now just be used to house the 300 loyalty cards I have which most are slowly moving to phone QR codes etc.
I’m of a generation that has easily adapted to cashless, but I fear for those elderly people that still don’t trust the banks and has money stashed away, I fear for the homeless who will completely struggle even worst.
If they can freeze your bank account, is it really yours? Once they go fully cashless you won’t own anything. If you say something that government don’t want you to say, they will freeze your bank account and basically rob you. Cashless society is only good for richest people and rulers.
If I am on a big night out I like using cash as it helps me keep track. If I am pissed up I get a bit loose with it all and having a physical reminder helps.
I really don’t like the idea of a cashless society, just to put on my tin foil hat for a moment. I think it’s a ploy to give us less control over not only what we choose to do with our money but the privacy of what we choose to spend our money on.
The idea of having your entire worth held as a digital asset to which the bank or even the government could control, manipulate or even take away.
In a totalitarian regime what a cashless society would look like is having your entire bank account taken away from you for opinions of statements you gave online.
Will we get to that point idk but slippery slope is slippery for sure.
‘Now that we are a cashless society we will be imposing a 1.25% card sales fee on all transactions. This will be reviewed every 12 months and rise in line with inflation now that you have no choice but to use us.’
There’s yet another side to this, which is the added cost of paying by card. My local butcher has just got rid of his card machine after trialling it for the last few months, so we’re back to cash only. He was open about it: offered the regular customers the choice of keeping it with the transaction fees factored into the price of the meat, or or losing it and keeping the price of the meat the same.
It’s a horrifying prospect, but not surprising, given the way things are going.
We need an alternative to cash with the same functions that’s secure and separate from the banking system. This is where crypto comes in.