WIREDGOV

By 2029, proving your right to work in the UK may no longer mean showing a passport or residence permit. Under government proposals, it could require a digital ID stored on your smartphone. The aim is modernisation: faster checks, fewer barriers, less fraud. Yet for the millions still excluded from the digital world, the shift risks creating a new class of invisibility – one defined not by citizenship, but by connectivity.

Digital exclusion in the UK is widespread and measurable. Around 1.6 million people remain offline, while almost 4.5 million adults do not own a smartphone – rising to more than one in four among those aged over 75. Eleven million adults also lack the essential digital skills needed for basic tasks such as setting up an email account or managing online forms. For these groups, a digital-only identity system is not progress; it is a potential barrier to participation in work, education, and everyday services.

The Digital Poverty Alliance’s latest policy brief warns that the proposed model could entrench inequality if accessibility is not built into its design. Although the government has signalled that a physical card may be available, the Digital Poverty Alliance cautions that employers and service providers are unlikely to maintain offline systems once digital verification becomes the norm. For people on low incomes, older adults, and others without reliable access to technology, that shift could mean being unable to prove their right to work – or to access vital support.

As Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance, notes, “Digital inclusion must be at the heart of all public services, including preserving alternative options. If digital ID becomes a requirement without safeguards and alternatives, millions who are already excluded could be shut out of work, healthcare, and essential services.”

The brief outlines four key recommendations to guide a more inclusive approach: guarantee fully recognised offline alternatives for identity verification; apply inclusive design principles that address accessibility barriers; maintain equivalent offline pathways across all government services; and invest in digital trust, literacy, and affordability so participation is possible – not presumed.

A digital system that overlooks accessibility is inequitable. It denies access to opportunity, work, and full participation in society. As the consultation on digital ID moves forward, the test for policymakers will be whether innovation truly extends inclusion – or whether it hardens the line between those who are connected, and those who are left behind.

Read the full policy brief