Campaigners cashed-in on a chance to voice their concerns at Government plans to scrap cheques by 2018.
Members of the Basingstoke Over 55’s forum met with representatives of the Payments Council and MP Maria Miller to plead their case.
Forum chairman Graham Finlayson and secretary Gerald Merritt met Sandra Quinn, head of communications at the council, on January 14.
At the talk, held at the Conservative Club on Bounty Road, the pair highlighted concerns of older residents.
Mr Merritt told the Basingstoke Observer that getting rid of cheques would put elderly residents at a disadvantage.
He said: “Some people can’t get out of their homes – how are they going to pay their bills?
“With no cheques older people are going to have to carry more money and will be vulnerable to muggers.
“It is a form of discrimination against older people.”
In January 2010 the Payments Council launched an 18-month national consultation in a bid to find an alternative.
Ms Quinn assured the meeting that nothing would change until an adequate alternative was in use.
Mr Merritt said: “They told us that nothing is yet set in stone and that banks have sent in agreements to keep using them till at least 2016.”
Basingstoke MP Maria Miller said: “Abolishing the cheque will cause great difficulties for our most vulnerable members of society, pensioners, the disabled and the housebound. Small businesses and charities would also be disadvantaged.
“This was a very positive meeting which gave us the opportunity to explain to the Payments Council our concerns about the plan to end the use of cheques. I very much hope that they will take our views into account as they take their work forward.”
In October last year the Over 55’s Forum spearheaded a petition to the Payments Council.
They collected 3,214 signatures from the borough, the second highest petition in the country.
Mr Merritt said: “We are fighting for the rest of the country. There is a bit of pressure in that but we are making sure our way of living does not change.”
Cheque usage has been declining steadily since its peak in 1990 when more than 10 million cheques were written every day. That has now fallen to 3.8 million per day.
