Removing cash from the economy undermines people's independence and autonomy. That's the view of Carrickmacross native and head of Advocacy and Public Affairs at Age Action Celine Clarke, who has been reacting to the move by the NCT and National Ploughing Championships to go cashless.
Speaking on this morning's Joe Finnegan Show, Ms Clarke highlighted how there are 680,000 people over the age of 60 in Ireland who are not online or are below 'digital skills'. She pointed out that the postal order option being proposed by the NCT is not convenient and also adds charges for customers.
Ms Clarke added that the impact of social exclusion becomes a risk when people are pushed towards a cashless economy. "Removing cash from the economy undermines people's independence and autonomy," she continued.
"It puts them at risk of abuse, not just financial elder abuse, there are many people in coercive control situations who need to be able to manage their affairs in cash. There are also those who are on very fixed incomes and don't necessarily operate through digital banking.
"Another reason to protect cash in the economy is because many people get paid in cash. Removing cash from society has the potential to expose people to fraud, scam, safeguarding, erosion of independence and autonomy and it's just wrong."
Meanwhile, Ms Clarke stated that financial elder abuse is happening and the latest HSE National Safeguarding Report shows 850 cases of financial abuse of people aged 65 years and older. She highlighted how Age Action knows that the issue is under-reported but very often older people have no choice but to hand over their financial affairs to someone else to conduct transactions for them.
