Due to the coronavirus, people use cashless payments more often

The list of occupational diseases in Lithuania may also be made to include the coronavirus. A social payment could be allocated to workers of all professions.

As Vice-Minister of Health Živile Simonaitytė explained, the Ministry of Healthcare suggested this idea to the Ministry of Social Security and Labour. A decision will be made after discussions. According to her, there is no such practice in EU countries yet.

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Every fourth resident of Lithuania, due to the coronavirus pandemic, has started using non-cash payments more often. Both payments by payment cards and payments by means of a mobile phone have grown. According to Evaldas Karčauskis, senior economist at the Bank of Lithaunia Market Infrastructure Policy Department, the pandemic has accelerated the popularity of innovative payment methods. This also led to an increase in the limit of contactless payments in June from 25 to 50 euros. It is worth noting that cash is maintains its importance – 29% of respondents make payments this way (in 2019 this was 34%).

A representative survey commissioned by the Bank of Lithuania was conducted by Spinter Tyrimai, which surveyed 1,014 residents.