Which? is calling for urgent action to protect the millions of people who depend on the critically endangered cash network, as new research from the consumer champion shows more than a third of consumers have been blocked from paying with cash since the start of the pandemic.
In one particularly concerning incident reported to Which?, a diabetic man in urgent need of food because his blood sugar levels had dropped was refused service in two restaurants that had gone cashless because of coronavirus.
James Boswell, stopped off at a service station in urgent need of food and despite explaining his situation, the first food outlet he tried, a Nando’s restaurant, refused to serve him as he only had cash with him. The same happened at another restaurant, El Mexicana, but eventually he was able to pay in cash at KFC.
In a survey of 2,000 people, 34 per cent reported being unable to pay with cash at least once when trying to buy something since March, when coronavirus restrictions were first introduced.
Five per cent of respondents said they rely on cash, which equates to more than two and a half million people in the UK. 13 per cent, equivalent to seven million people, also said they would struggle without it.
Respondents were most likely to be refused the option of paying in cash when shopping for groceries, which accounted for more than a quarter (28%) of incidents.
This was followed by leisure activities such as going to a pub or restaurant (24%) and buying cleaning products (21%).
Jenny Ross, Which? Money editor, said: “Cash is still a vital way to pay for millions of consumers, so to see such a high proportion of people report that they have had difficulty spending it is very concerning, particularly now we have entered another lockdown.
“We have repeatedly warned about the consequences that coronavirus will have on what was an already fragile cash system, but nowhere near enough action has been taken by the government or the regulator to understand the scale of this issue.
“The government, which is still yet to introduce legislation to protect cash it promised almost a year ago, must urgently make the FCA responsible for tracking cash acceptance levels. Failure to do so will see the cash network crumble and leave millions of people abandoned.”
