Rural communities are being left cashless amid the economic fallout from the Coronavirus crisis.
The UK’s cash-in-transit industry has seen a 70 per cent drop in business since the outbreak, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.
The mobile banking sector has been suspended with immediate effect, leaving rural communities with no access to cash and no access to banking.
Along with high numbers of bank branch closures and the disappearance of ATM machines – these mobile banks were a lifeline for thousands of people, particularly the elderly and those in rural communities
Roger Jenkins, GMB National Office, said:
“Unless the Government steps in now we are on the verge leaving hundreds of thousands of older people and those in rural communities cashless.
“Millions of people across the UK rely on cash, but many have seen their access to physical money removed.
“Meanwhile the retail and banking sector are scaremongering on the use of cash during the COVID-19 outbreak – advising people to use card terminals which are rarely disinfected, touched by hundreds of people each day and made of materials the virus will survive on for more 36 hours.
“Unless firm action is taken it is only a matter of time before no one has access to cash and it is the elderly, the poor and the most vulnerable that will suffer most.”
