Concerns have been raised about elderly people being “digitally excluded” after a pensioner received a parking fine because he was unable to pay electronically.
Scores of people have recounted their own stories in response to Pete Paphides, 52, the journalist, broadcaster and author, tweeting about his late father’s struggle.
Paphides, who also spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the problem, said that his father, Chris, 84, was in Birmingham for a friend’s memorial service last month when he found that the car park payment system had changed. The only options were to pay via an app or an automated payment line. He called his son in a panic.
“My dad was unsure what an app was and his bank details were not on his phone,” Paphides told The Times. “He saw that there was a camera, he knew that he would probably be liable for a fine. He was anxious, it was playing on his mind.”
Fearing that he would be late for the service, his father parked anyway. He asked his son to try to sort out the problem before a fine was issued. However, Paphides said that he was only able to fill in a form on a website to which he received no response. After his father died this month, he found letters saying that a fine of £100 had been imposed and had then risen to £170.
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Paphides, who is married to Caitlin Moran, the Times columnist, said that the parking company “didn’t believe me” when he told them about his father’s death and had referred the matter to a debt recovery service.
Paphides described the huge response to his account as “startling” but added: “In a way I’m not that surprised — these people just don’t have a voice. The tragic thing is, a lot of them don’t even expect to have a voice. They think they have been forgotten and no one is listening.”
Esther Rantzen, who founded The Silver Line helpline for older people, said the problem was among the reasons why a minister for older people was needed. It would mean that “these 40-year-olds who make these decisions would be forced to look at life through that lens”, she said.
Those responding to Paphides included Jenny Pirks, who described her father’s struggle to pay for parking at a hospital where her mother was being treated for cancer.
“My dad couldn’t understand the parking payment process at the hospital and got fined,” she said.
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Marie McQuade wrote about being at a Marks & Spencer branch behind a woman who asked for a loyalty card and was told she would need “an app, a camera for a QR code, and to apply on her phone . . . Not inclusive”.
