Needed to prevent service exclusion.
Local and national government services must balance their drive for efficiency with an understanding of individual needs.
At Citizens Advice Reigate & Banstead we meet a steady stream of people whose access to core services is reduced, delayed, or even denied by one-size-fits-all policy*.
Those with poor computer skills or access are frequently at risk.
In recent weeks we have helped clients who couldn’t complete an application for social housing; needed help to apply for Personal Independence Payment; without computer skills found it impossible to communicate with HMRC; had been sanctioned for missing an online response.
In 2013 the government published an ambitious digital exclusion strategy. Ministers urged everyone in public and private services to work to remove the obstacles to people using the internet confidently and effectively.
The strategy was important progress. It underlines the right of everyone to benefit from modern communications and service delivery. Over time it will help reduce the 20% of us** who are held back by some level of digital exclusion.
Meanwhile public and private providers need to understand this gap in many people’s lives and be flexible in managing the services they depend on.
*Sanctions and unconventional lives
**BBC research cited in the digital strategy.