Glen Innes Severn Council to consider going cashless by July 2022

If councillors sign off on a proposal by council staff this week, ratepayers of Glen Innes Severn council will no longer be able to directly pay their bills with hard currency.

Pensioners and others who don't have a visa card could still pay at the bank or post office.

In a report to Glen Innes council, financial accountant Amy Watson said that the country is already going cashless and is forecast to eliminate hard currency entirely as early as 2024.

READ MORE:

The process has been sped up by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many shopfronts to close, including the main Glen Innes council offices in the Town Hall, she said.

Ms Watson said council staff were regularly being unduly distracted from more important tasks simply counting cash.

"It is not only the impact on staff productivity that has encouraged the proposal to make the town hall office cashless," she said, in the report.

"There are many other benefits associated with becoming cashless such as less opportunities for human error (for example providing customers with incorrect change), reduction of the opportunity to commit fraud, and less risk of theft to staff and the organisation."

Glen Innes Mayor Carol Sparks said few people carry cash anyway, particularly for large bills like rates.

"[My family] use cash but less and less," she said.

"I use cash here and there, but mostly all my bills are paid online. It's a lot easier.

"I'll probably support [the motion]. I think the percentage of people that wanted to use the direct debit [option] was overwhelming really. There were a few people concerned with doing it and wanted to still use cash, but as I said you can still go to the post office or your bank if you want to do that."

Cr Sparks said she's proud the council was "leading the way".

Glen Innes councillors will make a decision on the proposal at their monthly meeting on Thursday.

If they approve the proposal, council's town hall office would go cashless on July 1, 2022.

Want more local news? Subscribe to the Leader to read it here first

The council sent out 4,500 newsletters in August, and of 31 responses, 22 opposed the proposal, half of them because they were customers who only make payments in cash.

Those customers can still do so by making a direct payment into the council's bank account at a bank branch.

Just 5 per cent of council customers paid their bills by cash in 2020/21, and 7 per cent in 2019/20. Four per cent paid by cheque, and the remaining 91 per cent paid either by credit card, EFTPOS or by a direct payment, the last accounting for 83 per cent of all payments.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: