According to the Bank of England, which is currently running an exhibition called “The future of Money” until September 2025: “Cash remains a valued form of money for the elderly and those on lower incomes, with many using it to budget and manage their household finances.”
In July 2022, cash as first preference payment method was most popular among those aged 65-plus, at 27 per cent, and most used by people in lower socio-economic groups.
A 2020 Financial Conduct Authority report found that 46 per cent of the digitally excluded, 31 per cent of those with no educational qualifications, and 26 per cent of those in poor health still rely on cash to a "great or very great extent".
Some people with physical and cognitive disabilities also find other payment methods difficult to use (they may struggle with pin numbers or passwords, for example).
Even those who do not use cash on a day-to-day basis find it valuable. Just 35 per cent of respondents in July 2022 thought they could go more than a month without cash.
Cash is a great budgeting tool, too. When your purse is empty, that’s it.
No defences against hackers and ‘bugs’
The cashless society has already gone too far.
Within the past week, I could not buy a sandwich at London Bridge Pret because the tills were down.
A fortnight ago at White Stuff on Cowes High Street on the Isle of Wight, high winds and tide led to floods disrupting the computer system, not to mention 400 items of damaged clothing. I paid on card but the receipt was handwritten.
A month ago, I could not buy groceries in Sainsbury and on a busy Bank Holiday, Gails Bakery in Greenwich probably lost most of an entire day’s custom because the internet was down. It certainly lost my custom.
Similarly, at a heaving Fumo’s Italian restaurant in St Martins Lane, in London’s West End’s theatre land, I was treated to lunch. The internet was down, cash-only payments were taken. My host had no cash. I had cash. It wasn’t quite the treat I had been expecting!
Multiply that lost business – just five personal incidents by 50mn individual experiences from the population at large, then it is all too stark just how much business is lost by killing off cash. At the very least, have a viable Plan B.
I virtually never print out any financial records, I rely on banks and so on to get it right. Now I am not so sure. Are we all too reliant on fintech? I dread to think if we went totally cashless and paperless, what hackers and criminals could do to disrupt UK plc.
