25M Brits would struggle in a cashless society

Re:25M Brits would struggle in a cashless society by JimDabell on Saturday March 16, 2019 @11:17AM (#19408229)

> One of the problems with a cashless society is that the banks aren't required to give you a bank account.

In the UK, the nine largest banks are legally required to offer basic bank accounts specifically to cater to people who cannot otherwise get a bank account.

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Re:25M Brits would struggle in a cashless society by pjc50 on Saturday March 16, 2019 @11:52AM (#19408386)

However, this is more complicated if you're not a UK national, and if the Home Office decides you're an illegal immigrant (a process with a deliberate high false positive rate) it can get closed.

https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/blog/6538/Student-banking-Do-you-r... gives a decent overview of the process. It also mentions the unofficial national ID of the UK, household utility bills.

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Re:25M Brits would struggle in a cashless society by frosted-flakes on Saturday March 16, 2019 @12:08PM (#19408477)

I take that to mean that the UK is not switching to e-billing for utilities any time soon.

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Re:25M Brits would struggle in a cashless society by pjc50 on Saturday March 16, 2019 @01:36PM (#19409026)

Oh, it mostly already has.

The punchline is whether a printout of a PDF of something that never had a print original counts as an "original" for ID purposes in a completely adhoc adversarial system. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

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Re:25M Brits would struggle in a cashless society by dan1234 on Saturday March 16, 2019 @02:50PM (#19409455)

We’re already there; I think the only paper bill I’ve received in the last 3 years has been my council tax bill, and that’s only because I’ve never been offered an e-billing option.

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