AGE member PASYDY Pensioners Union in Cyprus has been working with the government, political parties, and banks to ensure older people are not penalised by digitalisation.
They campaigned against extra charges for in-person services such as bank transfers, deposits, withdrawals, or printed statements – and advocated for the right of people of all ages to choose how they receive essential communications, such as government mail or invoices, with the option to receive them on paper by post, not just online.
This article written by Soteris Avgoustis (Secretary of PASYDY Pensioners Union – Nicosia, Cyprus) explains how their advocacy work succeeded: people of all ages now have the choice to receive important information on paper, if they prefer, and can use in-person services without extra cost.
For years, people not familiar with digitalization, mainly older people, have been suffering from paying penalties when visiting bank tellers for any kind of service, and/or from not being able to receive by post invoices from public utilities, as such Services have unilaterally decided to send the invoices only electronically.
We have been trying to convince the banks and the Services concerned that such an attitude constitutes a severe discrimination and punishment against a great part of the population. To achieve our goal, we have sent written protests to everyone involved, to all political parties, as well as to the Government and the Parliament. We also had meetings with interested Services and the Bank Association.
Despite in the beginning the response from all parties was negative, after we managed to gain the support of social media, such as TV stations, radio stations, and important daily newspapers, we succeeded in attracting the interest and the intervention of the Government.
The President of the Republic was himself interested in resolving the issue. This Government intervention ended with positive results, put in force at the beginning of 2025, as mentioned below:
1 – The various Services of public utilities have agreed to send their invoices by post to any interested person.
2 – The banks agreed to apply the following measures:
- Free cash withdrawals from ATMs at any bank in Cyprus and Europe for customers with a “Basic Account”/or savings account.
- Free over-the-counter cash withdrawals and deposits at the Bank’s branches, as well as a free checkbook for all pensioners.
- Free “Basic Account” maintenance for Minimum Guarantee Income beneficiaries.
- Free statements and certificates
In addition the following for other groups:
Free “My Account 18-25” for young individuals, with the following benefits:
– Free “Ocean Debit” card
– Free cash withdrawals in Euros from any ATM worldwide
– Free travel insurance
– No currency conversion fees for transactions in foreign currency up to €1.000 per month
– Option for an overdraft limit with a lower interest rate up to €1.200
3 – Free money transfers within Cyprus and Europe (SEPA transfers) for amounts up to €3.000 and same-day execution, also free, via Online Banking and the Hellenic Bank Mo.
We are satisfied because our efforts ended with great success, and also because thousands of older persons can now visit the banks without the fear of being penalized.
We shall follow the whole subject and we shall be ready to intervene in case something of the above is not applied.
Soteris Avgoustis
Secretary, PASYDY PENSIONERS UNION | Nicosia- Cyprus
Useful links
- Medicine Information Leaflets: Paper or Digital? Both! Patients have the right to receive a printed copy with their medication
- AGE Paper: “Digitalisation and older people: our call to EU policy makers”
- BEUC: Position on the European Commission’s proposal for a revised pharmaceutical legislation.
- PGEU: Position paper on the reform of the EU Pharmaceutical Legislation and PGEU position on electronic product information.
- CPME: Proposed amendments to the Commission’s Proposals for the Directive on the Union code relating to medicinal products (...)
- EFN: EFN PS improving frontline nurses’ time for direct patient care with digitalisation & responsible AI
