Demand for cheque alternative from pensioner group

It was announced last year that the banking industry is looking to do away with the cheque, which has been a method of payment for millions of older people for many years before debit and credit cards came along. Many pensioners and older people still rely on cheques to make payments for various services and purchases, and the announcement that the cheque was to be phased out caused concern that many of these people would be left without a viable alternative.

The banking industry has said that it is planning to phase out cheques by around 2018, but many officials have said that this could impact on pensioners negatively, causing them stress and difficulties. A pensioner group is now calling for an effective and suitable paper alternative to cheques to be offered so that those that cannot use the Internet to make payments will still have a viable choice.

The group that is lobbying for the paper alternative to the cheque is the National Pensioners Convention, and its protest to find an alternative comes shortly after the BCC revealed that more than 75 percent of pensioners were against cheques being phased out. The NPC is now calling for a guaranteed paper alternative to be offered to older people in place of cheques.

An official from the NAC said: “If cheques are taken away from older people it will create an enormous stressful situation for them, because their bills are paid on time, with a cheque, in an envelope and put in the post. We have told the authorities that what is going to be required is a paper trail to replace the cheques.”

A spokesperson for the Wandsworth Older Peoples Forum added: “A lot of people who are housebound use cheques daily, and a lot of people who have no computer and therefore can’t get onto the internet or do internet banking would be lost without it.”

Tags: concern, time, enormous stressful situation, Social Issues, finance, pensioner, payment, cheque