Group items tagged

"Someone tell us something we don't know. Like, how are we going to get the less digitally confident, and the people who'd like to go online but who are still trepidacious, whizzing around the net with panache and aplomb, saving money, having choice, wielding civic powers, keeping mentally alert, feeling less lonely and isolated? That seems to me to be, still (and with the advent of universal credit which will only be delivered online, increasingly so) the most pressing question. And not least because unless it can be achieved, the fabled and miraculous cost saving efficiencies that online promises a heavily indebted government are but (non digital) pie in the sky."

"Next year the welfare system will undergo an overhaul as universal credit is introduced. The benefit, replacing six others, includes a new requirement to apply for benefits online. With millions of people having never used the internet, however, it raises the question of how those not online will manage. Universal credit is just one example of how, as our society becomes increasingly digitalised, those who are not online are at risk of becoming excluded. And it's not just a case of people opting not to be online."