Six in 10 older people 'socially excluded' for using cash

People who are 60 or older are more likely to socially or digitally excluded due to their use of cash rather than bank cards, Age Action has said. 

The charity's policy specialist, Nat O'Connor, has called for acceptance of cash for at least more 20 years to give elderly people the opportunity of societal inclusion and choice in how they pay as consumers.

The Oireachtas Finance Committee also heard that while six in 10 older people already experience digital exclusion, one in five are at risk of poverty. Mr O'Connor also noted that three in 10 older people get 90% of their income from the State.

As a result, Mr O'Connor called for regulations to guarantee easy access to and the acceptance of cash.

Cathaoirleach of the Joint Oireachtas Finance committee, Rose Conway-Walsh, agreed with Mr O'Connor and that public transport had to be taken into consideration with the placement of ATMs.

"If you don't have transport, to get 10km, it might as well be 1,000km," she argued.

Mr O'Connor added that ATMs often do not stock smaller bills pushes people to take out larger sums of money, which is sometimes unavailable according to people's means - considering one in five people are at risk of poverty.

"Cash is public money", Mr O'Connor quoted the ECB as saying. "We want people to have easy access to cash, or in smaller denominations," he said.