Adults with learning disabilities are concerned their independence is being undermined by businesses across London going cashless.
London is going cashless at a faster rate than the rest of the UK, with £500million less withdrawn each month from cash machines in 2023 than before the pandemic, and even some of the city’s most inclusive venues have gone cashless in recent years.
But where adults with learning disabilities, such as those supported by south London performing arts and education group The Baked Bean Charity, could confidently purchase something on their own with cash, they must now rely on others to pay by card.
One of the charity’s senior facilitators Charlotte Bell said: “The minute you remove cash from someone with a learning disability, who may not have an understanding of how to use a card, you’re taking their financial freedom from them and then you’re putting that responsibility on their support systems.
“We should be promoting independence, and we should be allowing people to have the opportunity to be independent.”
At the end of February, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds MP stated the government had no plans to regulate businesses to compel them to accept cash.
However, recent calls on the government to review cash policy have highlighted that businesses going cashless disproportionately impacts adults with learning disabilities, many of whom rely on cash for financial independence.
In a statement to the government made in December, Mencap wrote: “Refusing to accept cash payments risks permanently excluding people with a learning disability from having the independence, control, and choice to pay for goods and services themselves.”
For many people with learning disabilities, there can be numerous barriers to using a bank card, resulting a significant number being reliant on cash for personal spending.
These barriers can include not having the right support to set a card up, banks not meeting access needs, or not having the skills to be able to use a card.
The income of someone with a learning disability is often managed by families or support workers, and cash is given as an allowance.
Cash can also be an important tool for teaching people with learning disabilities about how to manage their money because it is a more accessible currency, making it easier to budget and track spending.
Bell explained when The Baked Bean Charity go on group trips to places like theatres which don’t accept cash, facilitators often have to step in to buy things for their students who would have otherwise been confident purchasing things on their own.
She added students are massively disheartened when they are refused service because they only have cash.
Harry, 29, relies solely on cash for his personal expenses as his local bank did not allow his parents to open a bank account on his behalf, and feels distressed when he sees places in London which only accept card payment.
Harry said: “I feel quite choked, quite upset and very confused… it really gets me nervous.”
Claire, 37, does not have a bank card, but she said that if she did, she does not think she would be able to remember the PIN.
Claire said: “Some people can’t do much for themselves and then when they want to go to the shop and spend some money and stuff, if they’re not able to do that, it’s just stopping them from being a bit independent on their own and doing stuff for themselves.
“It’s like they’re making everything alright for people that haven’t got disabilities but people that have got disabilities, they’re taking away their freedom.”
Gary, 54, is one of the charity’s students who uses a card, but finds it upsetting when his peers have to be accompanied by a facilitator to buy a beer just because they only have cash.
He said: “It’s sad, we’re all adults here not kids.”
Students at The Baked Bean Charity said that they have noticed a lot of theatres, football stadiums and food places around London that have stopped taking cash.
There are concerns that even some of London’s most inclusive venues are negatively impacting adults with learning disabilities by no longer accepting cash.
A person, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that they work at a community café which recently stopped taking cash.
They said: “We often have charity groups who work with adults with learning disabilities come in for lunch.
“Sometimes they come up to buy a coke or a snack and we have to refuse service because they only have cash.
“It’s awful because you can see that in a space that is meant to be for the community, not taking cash is disproportionately affecting certain groups of people, even though it is still legal tender.”
The Southbank Centre in London, which is one of the county’s leading venues for inclusivity and is supported by public funding from Arts Council England, has also gone cashless.
A spokesperson for the Southbank Centre said: “We are proud to have been the first UK venue to be awarded Platinum accessibility status by disability-led charity Attitude is Everything for our continued commitment to providing the best possible experience for audiences and understanding the potential access requirements of deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and people with health conditions.
“We invest in specialist training for visitor-facing staff on disability awareness and access, to help ensure that no visitor is discriminated against at our venues. As a charitable organisation, we are constantly reviewing our services depending on our customers and their needs.
“Over recent years, we have seen a significant decrease in the demand to use cash. Additionally, there are significant costs incurred in handling cash.
“For this reason, we are continuing to remain a cashless venue while keeping this under review.”
Reynolds told the Treasury Committee in February that Labour are focusing on digital inclusion in their new financial inclusion strategy, in order to continue to allow businesses to go cashless whilst maintaining accessibility.
Reynolds stated that the reason for not making the acceptance of cash mandatory was the government’s priority of economic growth and a reluctance to put additional burdens on small businesses.
A 2024 study on the impact of businesses going cashless on people with learning disabilities in east London, published in the British Journal of Learning Disabilities, found that research on barriers to digital financial inclusion for people with learning disabilities was scarce.
They concluded that moving to cashless systems without ensuring ‘digital financial inclusion’ is likely to disadvantage those with learning disabilities significantly.
Bell said The Baked Bean Charity are yet to see the impact of the financial inclusion strategy and that in the meantime, people with learning disabilities will continue to suffer from businesses going cashless.
She said: “It’s just another hurdle, another barrier that’s being put in place for someone with a learning disability, stopping them from accessing in an equal and inclusive way.”
The Baked Bean Charity’s upcoming show ‘The Things We’ve Lost’, which is a performance exploring loss through the eyes of dancers with learning disabilities, is showing at the Royal Academy of Dance on 14 and 15 May. Get tickets here.
Feature image: Students at The Baked Bean Charity who took part in a discussion on the use of cash for people with learning disabilities. From left: Charlie, Mandy, John, Jenny, Gary, Daniel, Claire and Essin (Credit: Emily Buckley Bunn)
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