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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Personal identification (PIN) numbers
— a new cause of financial exclusion in older people | | Author(s) | Elizabeth L Sampson, Deborah Dover, Marc Mandell |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 22, no 5, May 2007 |
| Pages | pp 492-493 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Financial services [older people] ; Pensions ; Bank accounts ; Accessibility ; Cross sectional surveys ; Camden. |
| Annotation | Since April 2003, the UK government has been phasing out paper pension books. The state pension is now transferred directly into a bank account and cash obtained using a bank card, keypad and a 4-digit personal identification number (PIN). While this system is more secure, people with dementia or early memory problems are likely to have difficulty in remembering a PIN. This short article reports a cross-sectional study with 35 consecutive attendees at a day hospital and a community centre in Hampstead, London. All were aged 65+ with no acute medical or psychiatric illness. They completed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and were asked to identify a bank debit card, supermarket loyalty card, a PIN keypad and a pension book. They then generated a 4-digit PIN of their choice; immediate recall of this was checked, and again 2-4 hours later. Correct recall was hypothesised to correlate with an MMSE score of 25 or more. Two-thirds (64%) were able to enter their PIN correctly; but a score of less than 26 was significantly associated with inability to use a keypad. This result suggests that a significant number of older people will have difficulty in using a keypad and 'chip and PIN' systems. The 'hidden disability' of cognitive impairment may exacerbate financial exclusion. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070627223 A |
| Classmark | J: JJ: WNN: 5CA: 3KB: 82L8 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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