What Universal Credit teaches us about the challenges and opportunities of public and third sector digital services

As the Good Things Foundation have stated, there is a digital divide across the UK. Millions lack the basic digital skills necessary to thrive in today’s world. This exclusion exacerbates health inequalities and limits access to jobs and education. It can also leave those who are not online feeling left in the dark and out of pocket.

In June, the Digital Poverty Alliance launched a Charter calling on organisations across all sectors to improve online access for excluded individuals. The advantages to social tenants, claimants, and unemployed people are evident, but the potential benefits for landlords, local authorities, and support agencies are also significant. 

Universal Credit introduced a ‘digital by default’ (now ‘digital first’) approach, a bold move generally requiring claimants to manage their claims online. As public services become increasingly digitised,  increasing the demand for online access while streamlining costs, there is a need across the public and third sector to address this digital gap from both sides and  ensure that people facing hardship are better informed.

DISCONNECTED

Over eleven million people lack the basic skills to use the internet effectively with just under five million never going online at all. Lloyd’s 2023 Consumer Digital Index lists the three biggest contributors to digital disparities as cost of living, fear of fraud, and lack of motivation to learn. Other barriers, outlined in a Good Things foundation report, included people feeling overwhelmed and lacking necessary support as well as the cost of accessing the internet. 

Groups facing the greatest barriers to digital inclusion consist of: older people, people on lower incomes, people without a job, people with disabilities, homeless people, people whose first language is not English, people with lower literacy rates, and people living in rural areas. This underscores a particular challenge tackled decisively, if not totally successfully, by the government’s decision to prioritise online access to Universal Credit.

TRANSFORMATION

The combined impact of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis created the need for a new approach to include the digitally disadvantaged in policy decisions. In 2022, the government’s roadmap for digital and data transformation faced concerns over high levels of digital exclusion. 

Policy groups have already reported the effects of excluding these groups from reforms, most notably Universal Credit. Policy in Practice cites a lack of essential digital skills as a major reason many people lost out on a total of £22.7 billion in benefits last year. Age UK reveals that older generations on low income are missing out on benefits like Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support partially due to factors including low digital access and skills. 

Digital inclusion, however, is not just about getting people online. It also requires accessible and user-friendly forms of digital communication necessary to equip people of all backgrounds with the information and help they need. 

LESSONS TO LEARN?

The lead from the government on a digital first approach may provide useful lessons for landlords, health commissioners, and other service providers. Prioritising investment in digital communications could potentially increase demand from excluded individuals to engage with technology. But the question still remains: How carefully must we select the media channels we use and the messages we broadcast as we modernise our relationships?

Back in 2014, Halton Housing implemented their Digital First Programme as a strategic response to the roll-out of Universal Credit. They identified the cost of ensuring rent payments formerly paid direct to them through housing benefit could be significantly reduced with a shift to a digital self-service model.

In 2019, as the incoming CEO of Yorkshire Housing, Nick Atkin, told Inside Housing about the challenges at Halton, his former workplace: “As nearly nine out of 10 households have access to the internet, our strategy has shifted to one which provides an online experience that is so good that customers choose to use this over other options.” For those in need of digital upskilling, Halton Housing promoted digital inclusion programmes across the region. 

While their strategy was initially criticised by the housing sector, Atkin went on to say “Without the introduction of digital first, we would now be incurring additional costs of about £750,000 every subsequent year to collect our existing income levels.” 

RISK AVERSE

The challenge of risk aversion does not just apply to digitally disadvantaged consumers’ fear of scams. Risk managers are attuned to questions of compliance around digital communications and, in places, this is being carefully balanced to keep communities’ broader needs at the forefront of its decision-making on digital comms. 

When Quids in! proposed Aster Group licence and distribute money guidance published through its Readers Club email service, Aster’s Welfare Reform Manager called a meeting with their Risk Manager. Quids in! editor, Jeff Mitchell, recalls: “I arrived at their Somerset offices apprehensively. I knew our offer was GDPR-compliant but it seemed to be open to interpretation. This would be the litmus test.

“I presented the offer: ‘We’ll share email content with you as the landlord, and you’ll send it onto tenants, or at least the ones you have emails for. We’ll co-brand it, matching our independence with your recognised brand, so it’s clearly not spam and can be trusted,’ I said. The Risk Manager was interested but not convinced, but with support from the Welfare Reform Manager, I explained: ‘No data changes hands, and if you consider tenant wellbeing to be core to your relationship with them, the email service more than passes the Legitimate Interest Assessment.’ They agreed that there was no risk and Aster was happy to proceed. From there, we developed a very strong and worthwhile relationship with Aster and its customers, who continue to receive our monthly e-newsletter.”

By using an encrypted and widely used social platform, Chiho was able to work around clients’ privacy concerns, saying “It’s the best way to share time-sensitive information such as grants and job opportunities and local family events.” 

“In the past, our users asked how to get all the information and service we provide as they missed some opportunities.” She continued to say, “We had to come up with a most effective and localised solution to communicate with our growing communities. The WhatsApp community group is a safe and accessible platform.“

WEIGHING UP

Modernisation remains the goal of all public services but the digital first agenda creates tensions between the needs of digitally excluded individuals and the services they require. Providers can achieve significant cost savings, for example replacing print and post materials with email services. However, this must be balanced against the risk of excluding customers from services altogether.

Effective digital communications requires more than just an email; a new understanding of how to reach those affected by the cost-of-living crisis is needed. Meanwhile strategies for better-preparing consumers with modernised services will also require investment. While ‘digital first’ can create the demand to be ‘included’,  it fails to solve the challenge for the few who remain offline.

Campaign groups like the Good Things Foundation and the Digital Poverty Alliance are rightly taking on this challenge but all providers have a role to play – and everything to gain from their efforts. Conceding defeat too soon could leave the people who need information the most stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide.

See Jeff Mitchell’s blog on the top ten ways to engage low-income households with emails.

Image: Alfa Photostudio / Shutterstock