In Britain, specifically, one of the issues is that the law says a subset of people are to be denied banking. Banks must check; those people are not allowed to

In Britain, specifically, one of the issues is that the law says a subset of people are to be denied banking. Banks must check; those people are not allowed to open bank accounts, or be added as users of shared accounts. That's the UK Hostile Environment "right to bank" policy (orwellian for "no right to bank"). It affects undocumented migrants and asylum seekers of course, but it also anyone whose papers are not in good order, whose visa expires and they don't manage to obtain new paperwork in time (and that event may trigger closure of existing accounts if unlucky), people who've grown up in the UK and only when they turn 18 discover they don't have normal rights, and a surprisingly large amount of government incompetence (notable example Windrush people), and some irrational cruelty against people who have not broken any rules. In short, banking in the UK is a government-controlled privilege not a right, and the government of the day isn't exactly strong on treating everyone well. But most people take banking for granted and think of it as available to everyone. Personally I think that access to essential basics such as buying food really needs to be open to everyone, not "subject to status". A cashless society that prohibits by law the means of payment for an underclass of people in it is a cruel society indeed, and pretty much guaranteed to increase modern slavery and abuse. We have enough of that in the UK already.