Living off line: Can it be done

[Ollie_M]

Having just come back off holiday and whereby I had to show various documents over the course of my travels I got thinking is it possible/legal to live "off the grid"

Is it a legal requirement to have a bank account? could you start a job and be paid cash? I know some do already, but I'm referring to cutting all electronic and monitoring ties?

Just a thought....

[Ollie_M]

3.14 Quays?

[Cotty]

3.14 is Pi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi

[21TonyK]

Difficult but not impossible. Remember quite a few people cannot get bank accounts, being paid cash isn't that common but most employers will pay by cheque if there no other option.

But if you are out of the system you have no access to credit, would have difficulty owning property or a car etc

[Ollie_M]

Cotty said:

3.14 is Pi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi

The penny finally dropped

[Sheepshanks]

I imagine it would be tricky to do in isolation but through work my missus came into contact with the son of a farming family, in his 40's, and he was unknown for National Insurance purposes.

[Cotty]

21TonyK said:

But if you are out of the system you have no access to credit, would have difficulty owning property or a car etc

You could rent, if the landlord accepted cash.

You could buy a cheap second hand car for cash. But then you have all the issues of how to pay for insurance & tax. But then you are back into the system as all those details would be recorded.

[Ollie_M]

21TonyK said:

Difficult but not impossible. Remember quite a few people cannot get bank accounts, being paid cash isn't that common but most employers will pay by cheque if there no other option.

But if you are out of the system you have no access to credit, would have difficulty owning property or a car etc

Interesting, I was under the impression that the digital age would eventually force everyone onto the grid and as a result be tracked. Do we have a legal right not to conform with the masses?

[technodup]

21TonyK said:

Difficult but not impossible. Remember quite a few people cannot get bank accounts,

Pretty much everyone can get a bank account now, the banks were forced to offer basic facilities a number of years back. Not well publicised because they don't make money on them but they're designed for people with bad credit.

That said I don't know why anyone would want to be totally offline. Would be quite limiting given what we have. Unless that is the point obviously.

[tex200]

Sheepshanks said:

I imagine it would be tricky to do in isolation but through work my missus came into contact with the son of a farming family, in his 40's, and he was unknown for National Insurance purposes.

Did he not have a birth certificate either? Or did he just not know his NI number?

[Truckosaurus]

Cotty said:

...You could buy a cheap second hand car for cash. But then you have all the issues of how to pay for insurance & tax...

I imagine the best way to be off-grid is to hide in plain sight in a large town or city, and then you can get away without a car.

[Sheepshanks]

tex200 said:

Did he not have a birth certificate either? Or did he just not know his NI number?

I asked my missus and beyond discovering the situation and passing it on she didn't get further involved, but there was no record of him in the NI system.

The number should be generated when his parents claimed child benefit so she assumed they never had - perhaps surprisingly, that's not that unusual apparently.