To wonder why so many people don't carry any cash on them?

[InHibernationTilISummer]

Excluding people who are skint and the Queen, obviously.

I've had so many examples of this in the last few weeks:

• Colleague who came into the work in the bad weather. Lots of delays and problems on the bus route they normally get so wanted to get the train instead but had no money for a ticket because they had come in with their season bus pass and lunch and hadn't expected to be spending any money.
• Friend turning up for exercise class but hasn't realised that the price has gone up 50p since she last came - and she only brought the exact money she thought she would need.
• Another friend dropping older child off at sport class finds that there's a fair going on at the sports centre with stalls and activities that her younger child (who was with her) would have enjoyed. Complains that she wishes she had known about it in advance as she would have taken some money out with her.

Is this becoming more common or is it just the people I know? If you aren't skint but don't routinely carry money on you, why is that?

I've been in situations where I haven't expected to be spending any (or much) money and some problem has occurred or plans have changed for some reason (e.g. having to accompany someone to A & E or the last bus not turning up) and I would have been really stuck if I hadn't taken some spare 'emergency' cash.

Technology really helps people with disabilities. They just need family to help set it up or a carer.
So many apps out there that can enhance their lives.

Who knows but can't access a debit card or electronic payment?

Yet again, the 1.5 MILLION adults in the UK who can't have a bank account.
Poor people, immigrants, asylum seekers, the homeless, women in refuges....all these people you think shouldn't be allowed out?

a lot of websites are unreadable with technology for the blind

A lot of websites are unreadable for me also, you stick with the good ones.

a lot of websites are unreadable with technology for the blind.

And yet most are, and people who actually are blind - as opposed to the imaginary blind people invoked by people who realise that drilling holes in debit cards makes them sound a bit simple so are grasping for an unanswerable "what about the blind people, eh?" - are hugely better off in 2018 than they were in 1968 precisely because so much material is accessible with screen readers. And since the vast majority of people who are registered blind have residual vision and are hugely helped by large-scale magnification, they too are massively better off and are less affected by the small proportion of fucked websites that don't work with screen readers.

Amusingly, it's the iPhone which has been the main driver of improvements in accessibility for websites for people with visual handicaps. Jobs took the decision to avoid doing business with the devil not put Flash on iPhone, and that essentially killed all those shitty Flash-based websites, as suddenly their owners found they were excluding users of iPhones and iPads. Now you won't see Flash from one day's end to the next - indeed, I've turned it off in my desktop browser, to little effect - and the main bar to screen readers has been lifted.

I have a horrible short-term memory, so usually have some emergency money tucked away - about £20 in £5 notes each at home, in my purse, & in my phone. I'm disabled & have, on more than one occasion, suddenly needed a taxi home or something, which can't be paid for with a card. There are also a few shops locally that still only take cash.

Technology really helps people with disabilities. They just need family to help set it up or a carer.
So many apps out there that can enhance their lives.

Not all need to be taught!

There's a tendency to homogenise 'disabled people' on threads like these as if everyone is disabled in the same manner with the same additional needs or limitations. I'm not saying it's a huge deal but it can lead to people thinking for example that 'disabled people can't work' when many, many do, and can and do use technology with the same proficiency as anybody else.

Disability is a spectrum and plenty of people with a disability are fully independent :)

Mumsnet does not work properly with voice readers

Yet again, the 1.5 MILLION adults in the UK who can't have a bank account.
Poor people, immigrants, asylum seekers, the homeless, women in refuges....all these people you think shouldn't be allowed out?

All of those can access electronic payments in lot's of ways. You don't need a bank account. Cashplus being the widest used and accepted every where.

Yet again, the 1.5 MILLION adults in the UK who can't have a bank account.

You're moving the goal posts. There are 1.5 million who don't have bank accounts, which isn't at all the same thing as can't have. A large proportion of them will be elderly people who historically didn't have bank accounts and are not inclined to change, for example wives of old-fashioned men. They could get an account tomorrow morning, they choose not to.

Poor people, immigrants, asylum seekers, the homeless, women in refuges

There's no inherent reason any of them can't get bank accounts, with the possible exception of asylum seekers (who are dealt with through the benefits system using pre-pay cards, anyway) and the homeless. Why wouldn't a legal immigrant be able to get a bank account? Why is poverty any bar to a bank account?

And whatever your views on the morality of it, "we must retain cash for the benefit of homeless people and illegal immigrants" is not an argument you're going to win commercially.

There is an enormous difference between younger people working with a disability; and the vast majority of people with a disability who acquire it as they get older, usually after they have retired. If society does become cashless in 10 years time, I will simply have to spend more time helping my parents access services they currently access independently. That is not going to improve the quality of my life at all.

"we must retain cash for the benefit of homeless people and illegal immigrants" is not an argument you're going to win commercially.

Which is why it needs Government intervention. In the same way it needed Government intervention to force banks to create basic bank accounts.

And yet most are, and people who actually are blind - as opposed to the imaginary blind people invoked by people who realise that drilling holes in debit cards makes them sound a bit simple so are grasping for an unanswerable "what about the blind people, eh?" - are hugely better off in 2018 than they were in 1968

Well phrased. In threads like this there seem to be innumerable people coming out of the woodwork with plenty of whataboutery based often on their own prejudices against technology and trying to drag in other facile arguments that are less easily dismissed.

But ask an actual real blind person for their experiences using technology and card payments etc and they'll laugh until they realise you're serious then probably explain how much of a help technology really is.

It's all about the individual (on this thread) feelings about using something. If you're uneasy with it but don't feel able to articulate why it's easier to conjure up the stick figure person who apparently can manage large amounts of cash fine but be unable to handle using a debit card which has been around for yonks. Whereas if someone is less closed minded and more realistic they're likely to see the benefits and positives and take on board New suggestions they hadn't thought of (how many people pro cash bothered to look up Pingit for example and said 'oh what a good idea, I'll try it'?)

I personally am very nearly cashless, though I am always prepared for every eventuality with various cards, cash and supermarket trolley tokens, also I have Applepay though that hasn't, I've felt been as useful as the contactless card but I will try again with that.

I do feel though that a cashless society is not at all inclusive so things need to change a lot to make it so.

Of course technology has helped people with some disabilities. You prefer though to simply mock people than actually discuss this.

Mumsnet does not work properly with voice readers

My screen reader (the MacOS built-in one) has just perfectly happily read this page of comments. It even pronounced "CuboidalSlipshoddy" sensibly. What makes you think it doesn't work?

You're moving the goal posts. There are 1.5 million who don't have bank accounts, which isn't at all the same thing as can't have. A large proportion of them will be elderly people who historically didn't have bank accounts and are not inclined to change, for example wives of old-fashioned men. They could get an account tomorrow morning, they choose not to

You've not understood. The 1.5 million is people who want accounts but can't have them. If you add all the people who don't have them for other reasons its much higher.

If society does become cashless in 10 years time, I will simply have to spend more time helping my parents access services they currently access independently

Sounds like a reason to spend an hour a month teaching them starting now, rather than continuing to rail, Canute like (yes, I know why that metaphor is often misused, thanks) against the inevitable.

crunchymint I think we've been discussing this for many many pages and will no doubt continue to do so until the thread runs out of space!

cuboidal There is an actual blind person who has posted many times on site stuff complaining about the problems with the site. She does use it, but finds it very frustrating as there are many problems. Go and read her posts.

And whatever your views on the morality of it, "we must retain cash for the benefit of homeless people and illegal immigrants" is not an argument you're going to win commercially

I don't think I need to win it, I think cash isn't going anywhere for a very long time yet.

If society does become cashless in 10 years time, I will simply have to spend more time helping my parents access services they currently access independently

There's time. Teach a man to fish or embrace defeat before even trying and make a rod for your own back.

If I have cash I just seem to spend it on who knows What!
I suppose I am kind of lazy too - just out of the habit I guess or forget to cash point when I run out so it's not a choice I make as such just something that happens 😊

cuboidal Do you read my posts? They are more technologically savvy than me. Buy my mums hand shakes and my dad has real problems with his memory and gets confused. IT IS THEIR DISABILITY THAT IS THE ISSUE. THEY ARE NOT STUPID. AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE.

The 1.5 million is people who want accounts but can't have them. If you add all the people who don't have them for other reasons its much higher.

No, it isn't.

www.financialinclusioncommission.org.uk/facts

"1.5 million adults remain unbanked in Britain today"

"Only about half of the unbanked would like a bank account."

It isn't "much higher" at all. It's 1.5m who are unbanked, with 750 000 who want a bank account. I can't quickly find figures as to what the blockers are. You're not helping your argument by trivially-rebuttable exaggeration.

Her hands shakes very badly, much worse than that guy you posted about.