APPG for Disability report on inquiry into the effects of bank branch closures on disabled people.
New research by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Disability, based on the experience of disabled bank customers, shows overwhelmingly that the closure of physical bank branches is having an effect on disabled people and their access to banking services.
Some disabled customers now have to travel for hours to reach an accessible branch, or have become more reliant on family members to take them to a branch.
The report finds that the alternatives provided by the banking industry, namely mobile replacements units and online banking, were found, by the research respondents, to be neither accessible nor adequate in the services they provided.
Many disabled customers felt that the banking industry simply did not take disabled people into account when formulating its policies, particularly those with "hidden" or cognitive disabilities.
A common solution suggested, was for banks to co-operate and to create a form of “community bank”, where all major banks were housed in one place. This way, all of the major banks could stay open in towns and cities without the costs of operating an entire branch by themselves.
Read the report in full by downloading from the link below.