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Digital Poverty Alliance: November 2025 News Letter.

Across the UK, conversations about Digital ID are gathering pace, bringing renewed attention to what this shift could mean for access, privacy, and participation. Our recent policy brief set out the risks clearly: a digital-only approach to identity could create a new form of invisibility for people who are offline, without a smartphone, or lacking the skills that digital verification assumes. As the debate accelerates, one principle remains constant. Any future system for proving identity must work for the people who are least visible in policy discussions but most affected by how identity is designed, verified, and understood.

That focus has shaped much of our work this month. As we approach Christmas, hundreds of laptops have reached families through our Tech4Families, Tech4YoungCarers, and Tech4Youth delivery programmes – a welcome pace at a time when rising demand makes the urgency impossible to ignore. The need continues to grow, and we will keep calling for wider support from partners and the public so that families are not left behind at a moment of year when digital access anchors learning, work, and everyday life.

We are also widening our support for the UK’s digital landline switchover, recognising how much residents rely on information that is clear, steady, and easy to share. BT’s Digital Voice team has produced accessible print material designed for real conversations – at the doorstep, in communal spaces, or with those who prefer something they can hold – and it is now available through our online request form. Paired with the DPA’s own factsheet, this gives councils, housing teams, and community organisations the dependable guidance they need to support residents through a change that is already shaping everyday discussions.

Taken together, these threads point in the same direction. Whether the issue is Digital ID, access to a laptop at home, or the landline switchover, the test of any change is simple: does it meet people where they are? That commitment will continue to guide our work across programmes, partnerships, and policy in the weeks ahead.

Elizabeth Anderson

CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance

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