To wonder how the £1.7 million people in the UK without a bank account manage?

[marymarkle]

According to moneysavingexpert, £1.7 million people in the UK do not have a bank account. I found another source that said £1.5 million.

AIBU to wonder how these people manage their lives?

www.financialinclusioncommission.org.uk/facts

[tor8181]

my nan dont and never have shes 78

she gets her money in the post office and pays everything by cash using bill slips in the PO or on weekly cards at the PO

the goverment even put in her heat winter payment thing via the PO

[anniehm]

I suspect a number of these are women over a certain age who have all their finances go through their dh, my grandmother in law has never had a bank account in her name. Most people of working age have at least a basic bank account.

[ForalltheSaints]

I thought the figure was higher and does not surprise me. Around 20% of adults are not in paid work (last figure I saw) such as SAHMs and SAHDs, and then there are those in legal work paid in cash or in the illegal economy. As someone else observed, not having a bank account cannot always mean not having access to one, or being in a family where another person (usually the man I expect) has one.

[Roomba]

A neighbour of mine has disabilities which mean he very rarely leaves his house, he can't manage his money very well and he has no bank account. A couple of years ago, he got me to help in opening a post office account after DWP told him they would no longer be able to pay by giro (not true but they had a huge drive to get people off giros). He has a cash card now which I thought would help him a lot. He'd had to go into the PO before to cash his giro, which meant struggles with a taxi and ancient wheelchair. Great, I thought, we can get cash out for him at the nearest cash point.

Then several bank's cashpoints changed so they no longer accept PO cash cards. And the main PO itself shut down. So he really struggles now. He sends dodgy 'helpers' to get money out miles away. He has no internet access nor the capacity to use the internet. He is paranoid about banks anyway but several refused him an account as he has insufficient ID. He can't afford things like a passport that he'll never use. I worry how hell cope as society becomes increasingly cashless. He occasionally asks people to buy him stuff and hell give them the money, but that's not a great solution.

[treaclesoda]

And as I said earlier, you don't need a passport anyway. So this all falls into the category of people choosing not to have bank accounts because they don't want them

And as I said earlier, I had already asked in several banks and been told that they needed photographic ID. Which she doesn't have. I asked about special exceptions and was told they don't make exceptions. I'm not just making it up for fun.

However, I actually responded to an earlier poster and said that I would investigate other banks who don't have branches where I live. I hadn't thought of them previously because the last time I investigated any of those (albeit many years ago) they had wanted account holders to have a GB address.

[BabyDubsEverywhere]

I only opened an account for student finance to be paid into (because they said it had to be my own account). I wouldn't have one otherwise and I transfer the cash out to Dh's account which we use for all other income and outgoings. Once I've had my last payment I'll close it as I have no other use for it.

[ReflectentMonatomism]

She's housebound so not only would a passport be a waste of money,

Well, not if it enabled her to earn interest on her savings. 10 year passport is, what, eighty quid? Even in the current climate, 8 pounds a year would be an additional 1% on 800 pounds, which seems plausible for someone complaining about not being able to open savings accounts.

(And as I said earlier, you don't need a passport anyway. So this all falls into the category of people choosing not to have bank accounts because they don't want them, not because of malign circumstances).

[Kazzyhoward]

She's housebound so not only would a passport be a waste of money, she couldn't actually get a suitable photo taken for one anyway.

Probably not relevant in those circumstances, but you don't need to get a photo from a booth anymore. You can take your own with a digital camera (your phone) and upload it to the passport website if you buy your passport online. We've just done it for OH and DS and were surprised you could do it that way now.

[EssentialHummus]

She's housebound so not only would a passport be a waste of money, she couldn't actually get a suitable photo taken for one anyway.

Re photo - the website PasPic can help - you take the photo on your phone, they mail you proper passport size photos. Sounds like there are a few other issues for your mum but just mentioning this in case it helps.

[futuredayspast]

Many will be illegals working for cash.

If they are in the country illegally and taking payment in cash in order to stay under the radar, how would they be counted for those statistics? Presumably they aren't on the electoral roll etc?

[Gth1234]

Many will be illegals working for cash.

[futuredayspast]

PinkHeart in the example in my post it was a small company and they were willing to do it. This was over a decade ago so I don't know if regulations have changed since.

Where mental health is concerned it is sometimes a matter of taking things one step at a time. Very complicated processes involving having to argue with bank staff to follow policies they aren't aware of, for example, can be too much for someone who is barely treading water.

[ReflectentMonatomism]

No I guess you wouldn’t, but it’s on a few applications and if you are someone in need of a job seems daft to make it even harder for yourself to get employed just becuase you don’t have a basic bank account

I'm afraid that's how these sort of threads go.

It's difficult to function without a bank account, especially if you want a job. There are some people who cannot access bank accounts, which is a problem of itself which as a society we need to address as cash becomes less and less useful.

However, people who cannot access bank accounts are usually in a position where their inability to access bank accounts is pretty low down the list of reasons they can't a salaried job. So yes, there are people who if they were offered a job would have problems because of not having a bank account, but people who are in that position are very rare.

That is then used by people who haven't got bank accounts for reasons which are down to their choice, who then in bad faith say "what about me? I haven't got a bank account and I can't get a job!" But you could easily get a bank account. "I don't want to".

There's a character in a John O'Farrell book who has trouble getting around London because he is, as a republican, boycotting the Jubilee Line (but not, oddly, the Victoria Line). People who complain that their choice not to have a bank account impacts on their ability to get a job are in a similar category. There was a lot of this crap around the time cash payments were withdrawn on London buses, of people who for convoluted reasons didn't have either Oyster Cards or contactless cards complaining they couldn't use the bus, and what about the old people (who have Freedom/etc passes), and what about children (who travel free and/or have Zip passes) and what about...

People who can't get bank accounts and it impacts their lives? Huge sympathy, and as a society we need to fix bank exclusion and make at least basic bank accounts (and pre-pay debit cards) universally available.

People who choose not to have bank accounts? I couldn't care less, and more than I care that people who refuse to wear a hat get wet hair when it rains.

[PinkHeart5914]

Presumably if you don't have a bank account, you wouldn't apply for a job that said that

No I guess you wouldn’t, but it’s on a few applications and if you are someone in need of a job seems daft to make it even harder for yourself to get employed just becuase you don’t have a basic bank account

[ReflectentMonatomism]

Can you even get a job without a bank account or some sort theses days?

The right to be made in cash arose from the Truck Acts and only applied to "manual labourers", and there is a lot of case law from the 19th and early 20th century about precisely who is a manual labourer. It was all abolished in 1986, and since then no-one has had the right to be paid in cash. There were a variety of other ways of paying people in the aftermath (cheques drawn to cash, various voucher/warrant schemes) but now most regularly paid jobs will insist that you are paid by BACS transfer or, for some small companies, cheque. I'm not sure how they can enforce the account being in your name for BACS (if you give them a sort code and an account number, the name on the account is not used by BACS, as a lot of frauds take advantage of) but if they're going to pay you by cheque, it'll be a crossed a/c payee not negotiable cheque. You might be able to get a cheque cashing shop (do they still exist?) to cash that, but they'll charge quite a premium for it.

[Kazzyhoward]

I know when I’ve helped my cousin out with job applications a lot of them even state you MUST have a bank account in your own name

Presumably if you don't have a bank account, you wouldn't apply for a job that said that.

[PinkHeart5914]

Can you even get a job without a bank account or some sort theses days? I can’t imagine the solicitor firm or Sainsbury’s paying ones salary in cash

I know when I’ve helped my cousin out with job applications a lot of them even state you MUST have a bank account in your own name

[Caxx]

I'm one of those people due to literacy issues ive never had a bank account I find it all terryfiing tbh

[ReflectentMonatomism]

More like the banks own internal processes devised be people who have misunderstood the regulations, or the regulators who have misunderstood what the law actually says.

True. Goldplating is a massive issue.

[futuredayspast]

Being vague here as outing and also not my story to tell but someone I am close to lost access to his bank account as a result of a mental health crisis. His whole life fell apart and he would have been sleeping on the streets if not for the kindness of friends. When he eventually managed to find work his only option was to have his wages paid into my account and I sorted out bills and cash for him until he could deal with the financial mess he'd ended up in (which took years).

I am obviously nice and so it all worked out in the end, but imagine if I wasn't? In these situations there is such huge potential for financial abuse of someone who may already be very vulnerable.

[Basecamp65]

I think not having a bank account is different to not having access to a bank account. I know several people who use their partners account or have a separate account that only they use but it is in the name of their partner or parent.

When my daughter won some money as a teenager I put it into an old savings account I had but no longer used - she had a cash card and when she got a job she had her wages paid into it and then used it throughout university. It did not cause any issues whatsoever. she had no issues with ID as she had a full driving license and a passport

It was only when she was 25 and got a mortgage that she opened her own account. There was no reason just simply never found the need to make a special journey to the bank to open her own account - so she did it when she happened to be there getting a mortgage.

I suspect she would have continued with my old account indefinitely otherwise. But has always worked and lived a very normal life.

[sar302]

On line ffs!

[sar302]

Although not sure how you get the money on mine if you only have cash to start with...🤔

[sar302]

There are lots and lots of people living without a permanent address and / or ID for various reason - you cannot open a bank account in the UK without both of these things.

There is an online bank (I think it's Monzo?) that is working to address this issue, through things like Face ID and offering limited cash access - so around £250. Meaning that when people in these circumstances are able to find a job, they are able to provide an employer with bank details, then they get an income, and with an income they can hopefully find a stable address and ID, which then means they can have open access to a full bank account as usual.

It's a start.

[badlydrawnperson]

RE: ID - every year there are stories (it's cropped up on BBC Money box a lot) of this causing issues with front line staff just point blank refusing none-photo ID, so it's not unreasonable for someone to cite this as a problem.