Elderly face cash access strife, says Payments Council

Elderly and disabled people struggle to access cash and find themselves having to share their personal banking details suggests research. As many elderly and disabled find it extremely difficult using new technology and cash machines, and also without the help of a good neighbour find it tough visiting bank branches or even local post offices. As a consequence, they end up having to share their passwords, card details and PIN numbers with family and friends. However, this compromises their financial security. The research was written by consultants Policis and the charity Toynbee Hall. Both studied experiences of people in the UK aged over 80, or those who had cognitive, physical or sensory impairments. The end result was that they found examples of these people trying to cope with their personal finances and banking arrangements. These included: Lack of disabled parking at their bank branches. Difficulties using ATMs and challenges using internet banking. Cash machines were a particularly hard for some who found the buttons fiddly, found the screens hard to read, and were unable to remember their PIN number. People had a lack of confidence using new technology, and were unaware of some schemes available to them, such as chip and signature, rather than chip and pin cards. The lack of options for elderly and disabled people was an important factor in the Payments Council backtracking on a plan to end chequebooks. For more information on this, please click on: http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/media_centre/press_releases/-/page/2325/