Digital ID: What it means for the digitally excluded

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 a smartphone. The promise is efficiency: quicker checks, simpler access to services, less fraud. But for millions of people who are digitally excluded, it risks building new barriers into everyday life.

For these groups, a mandatory digital ID is not progress. It risks cutting people off from the labour market, compounding challenges that already make work hard to access. And the impact may not stop at employment. If digital ID becomes the standard route into healthcare, pensions, welfare, or education, exclusion could be baked into the very systems people rely on. Even if a physical card is offered as an alternative, its effectiveness depends on whether it is trusted, accepted, and consistently used – something far from guaranteed.

“Digital inclusion must be at the heart of all public services, including preserving alternative options,” said Elizabeth Anderson, CEO, Digital Poverty Alliance. “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. These proposals must start with the realities of those most at risk, or they will widen the divide.”

Digital inclusion means more than owning a device – it is about having the access, skills, and confidence to take part fully in society. Without this, modernisation can too easily become exclusion by design.

As consultation on digital ID begins, one principle should be clear: efficiency must not come at the cost of fairness. Unless inclusion is built in from the start, digital ID risks deepening the very inequalities it aims to overcome.