27 June 2021updated 05 Oct 2023 8:32am

How the myth of clean card payments created a cash crisis

Card providers and retailers are profiting from a boom in digital payments during the pandemic, but for millions of people physical money is a lifeline.

By Will Dunn

TURNERS HILL, ENGLAND - APRIL 03: A drive through farm shop has been opened at Tulley's Farm where contactless payment is taken on the end of a pole to observe social distancing on April 03, 2020 in Turners Hill, England . The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spread to many countries across the world, claiming over 50,000 lives and infecting over 1 million people. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Some services are so essential to daily life that the companies providing them are asked to make them available them to everyone. Energy and water companies have a “duty to supply”; the Royal Mail and broadband companies are required to provide “universal service”; transport companies are sold franchises for short, busy services bundled up with longer, quieter routes. But there is no universal service obligation for access to money.

A report published on Saturday (26 June) by the charity Age UK makes the case for access to currency: more than 6 million people aged 65 and over use cash at least once a week in the UK, and around 2.4 million people in the same age group depend on cash for almost all of their payments.