Welsh Equalities Minister Jane Hutt has raised concerns that people with little or no IT skills could find it difficult to apply for the new Universal Credit scheme – which is to be trialled in Caerphilly County Borough.
As a key part of the UK Government’s welfare reforms, Universal Credit is designed to be ‘digital by default’ and will primarily need to be claimed online.
Speaking at the Volunteering in a Digital Age conference in Swansea, the Minister said while digital technologies and the Internet are transforming people’s lives, there will still be people in Wales who are digitally excluded.
In 2010, figures suggested that around a third of adults in Wales did not regularly use the internet. More recent ONS figures suggest around 20% have never used it.
Addressing delegates, Jane Hutt said: “To be included and engaged in our modern society, the need to be digitally included is now a necessity. Digital exclusion can reinforce social and financial exclusion. The continuing development of technology can introduce new types of exclusion. So we must guard against complacency. Those who are still excluded are most likely to be those who are in need.
“In our current economic climate, we should all have an expectation that public services will make full use of digital technologies to deliver more accessible, usable services and drive out costs from delivery. But this cannot be at the expense of the users – people living in our communities across Wales.
“Whilst we are concerned about the way universal credit is being introduced as ‘digital by default’, we want to do all we can to help people access and enjoy the many other benefits that being ‘online’ will bring them – reducing isolation, saving money, increased participation and better employability.”
Universal Credit combines tax credits and benefits in one programme and is intended to make the benefits system less complex.
Details of the scheme have been released by Caerphilly County Borough Council.
This new method of delivering the complex benefits to needy people,which is being trailled by Caerphilly Council, is fraught with complexity for those two thirds of people in Wales, ( and I suspect this is probably higher in Caerphilly Borough)who do not either, have access to the on line application/information system, or, lack the skills to make such applications on line. The fact is that this new benefits delivery system will leave families and individuals with less benefits than they expected, and not pay benefits to which an individual is entitled because of the complexity of the digital applications.
There is no doubt that this trailled scheme by Caerphilly CBC will have all sorts of adverse effects on families throughout the Borough. It will overload the appeals system at the Council level, and it will certainly overload the Tribunal Appeals System by those who will find their benefits levels, and certain benefits, cut from their entitlements by default in the application system, it will be confusing in the extreem to work out which has had the adverse effect on a families or an individuals income, that fact alone will force people to effect appeals so that the proper levels of entitlement are sustained and maintained.
80% of all reductions to benefits is yet to take place, in some cases it will coincide with this new universal benefits coming in in Caerphilly County and this will cause untold confusion for claimants.
Caerphilly council are making a mistake in trailing this new delivery system until it is better understood, and, better explained to those who will benefit from it, or not, whichever turns out to be the case, but, but one thing it sure, and that is that there will trouble.
Universal credit is a working age benefit, it would be astounding to think that two thirds of working age benefit claimants lacked even the most basic of IT skills by choice. While the benefit excludes pensioners, the 'digital exclusion' figures makes no such distinction.
Those with a mind to inform themselves will have taken or indeed be taking advantage of the many courses available throughout the borough. Likewise the price of internet access itself is cheaper than ever. So to are there schemes to help those unable to afford a full price computer. In addition libraries offer internet access and have done for some time.
So this leaves us with the housebound and a core rump of digital refuseniks who have neither interest or need enough to make use of the services and facilities available to them.
It is also worth remembering that where an adult has not used the internet themselves, this does not mean their household is excluded. Many will have someone else to go online for them, be it a family member or friend.
Universal credit will initially be rolled out to new claimants, there is no evidence to suggest the application process is overly complex. No evidence to suggest people will be financially worse off and certainly no evidence suggesting a mass increase in the number of appeals.
The proposal so disingenuously expressed in the above comment that anyone who remains a technophobe is a refusenik, and, the total acceptance that all claimants will be getting all benefits to which they are entitled, or its their own fault, is an appalling slight on those,who, for many reasons will not be able to freely and successfully access benefits next year.
Such confidant and arrogant expressions of approval for an untried and untested technical system for claiming benefits, and an unquestioned acceptance that benefit entitlements ( for that is what they are) will reach the most in need assisted and aided by largely untrained and unfamiliar officers of the local authority is deluded.
With regard to the last paragraph of that comment,: this new system will only avoid the chaos I suggest if the sun melts rock.