Closure cuts lifeline to the world

When Green Bay lost its only bank in 1998, Joan Bennett lost part of her lifeline to the world.

Mrs Bennett has been blind for 32 years. Her only income is her pension.

When the ASB Bank was just across Godley Rd from her council flat, she used to do her banking by herself. She could talk to real people, and trust them to write out cheques or fill in forms for her.

Now she depends on someone else. Until recently, she gave her cashflow card to the lady who has been her home-help for years so she could withdraw money for her from the cashflow machine where the bank used to be.

But twice within a few weeks recently, the machine swallowed her card.

She had to get a friend to take her to the nearest bank at Blockhouse Bay to request a new card. During the second visit she was turned down when bank staff asked her to key in her personal identity number and she couldn't do it.

"They are very nice people," she says. "They said, 'We have to safeguard not only ourselves but you as well.'

"The previous week they had three forgeries, and one was a blind person whose home-care lady took more than she should have."

The bank did ask the Green Bay New World if it would give her cash whenever she needed it, without a card. The supermarket agreed to write a cheque to itself for Mrs Bennett to sign, then give her the cash.

Mrs Bennett has to trust the supermarket to write the cheque accurately, and she's happy to do so. "You can't go about not trusting everybody."

But she is reluctant to bother the supermarket unless she is buying goods there.

Also, the New World cannot tell her how much money she has in her account and whether the cheque will push her into overdraft.

"It was far better with a bank," Mrs Bennett says. "They used to say to me, 'You have so much in your cheque account,' so I never overdrew."

On her last visit to the bank in Blockhouse Bay, she said: "Next time you have one of your directors here, would you ask him to come and have a cup of tea with me?"

If they want to understand the impact of centralisation, they should take her up on it.