Left Offline: The Digital Divide That Still Holds People Back

In a world where banking, shopping, job-hunting and even seeing a doctor increasingly happen online, being offline is no longer a minor inconvenience. It is a serious disadvantage.

Digital exclusion remains a stubborn problem, leaving millions of people across the country, and many across the North East, cut off from opportunities and services that the rest of us take for granted.

A Persistent Divide.

Despite huge advances in connectivity, a significant digital divide remains. Although the proportion of people who are completely offline has fallen, well over a million adults still do not use the internet at all, and many more lack the skills or confidence to use it effectively.

Around 15 per cent of adults, some millions of people, are estimated to lack the foundation-level digital skills needed to take full part in modern life. The gap between the digitally confident and the digitally excluded persists.

Skills, Access and Affordability.

Digital exclusion takes several forms. Some people lack access to the internet or to a suitable device, with well over a million adults having no smartphone, tablet or laptop at all.

Others have access but lack the skills or confidence to make use of it, while for many the barrier is simply cost, with a notable proportion of households struggling to afford broadband or mobile data. Social tariffs designed to help exist, but awareness and take-up of them remain low, leaving many paying more than they need to or going without.

Who Is Left Behind.

Digital exclusion does not affect everyone equally. It falls most heavily on older people, those on low incomes, people with disabilities and those with fewer formal qualifications, and it is more prevalent in rural and deprived areas.

The great majority of those with no basic digital skills are older, and a large proportion have a disability or impairment. For a region like the North East, with an ageing population in places and significant deprivation, these patterns make digital exclusion a pressing local concern.

The Poverty Premium.

One of the cruellest aspects of digital exclusion is that it costs people money. Those who cannot shop, bank or compare deals online miss out on the savings and cheaper prices available to others, paying what is sometimes called a poverty premium.

Research suggests that people who are offline can pay substantially more for essential goods and services, and that being digitally engaged can save a household a meaningful sum each year. In this way, digital exclusion compounds existing financial hardship, hitting hardest those who can least afford it.

Cut Off From Services.

The growing shift of essential services online has made digital exclusion more damaging than ever. Many of those offline report finding it difficult to use council and government services, to engage with financial services or to access healthcare, with appointments, applications and information increasingly available primarily online.

As more of daily life moves onto the internet, those who cannot follow risk being shut out of the very services they may most need. Digital exclusion thus deepens other inequalities, in health, in income and in access to opportunity.

The Wider Cost.

The consequences reach into health and wellbeing too. Being cut off from the digital world can mean missed appointments, difficulty managing money, fewer job opportunities and isolation from friends and family, and research links digital exclusion among older people to a greater risk of poor mental health.

Conversely, helping people get online and build digital confidence has been shown to reduce loneliness and improve wellbeing. Digital inclusion, in other words, is about far more than technology; it is about connection, opportunity and dignity.

Bridging the Gap.

Tackling digital exclusion requires action on all its causes: access, skills, affordability and confidence. Community organisations, libraries and volunteer groups across the region already do vital work, offering free internet access, device-lending schemes, and patient, friendly support to help people build their skills.

Ensuring that essential services remain accessible to those who are not online, raising awareness of affordable tariffs, and investing in digital skills support are all part of the answer. Bridging the divide is a shared task, and one that grows more urgent as the world moves ever further online.

No One Left Behind.

As daily life becomes increasingly digital, the cost of being left offline grows ever steeper, and digital exclusion risks becoming a new and powerful driver of inequality. For the many people across the North East who remain on the wrong side of the digital divide, the consequences are real, affecting their finances, their access to services and their wellbeing.

Ensuring that no one is left behind as the world goes digital is a challenge for communities, services and government alike. In a connected age, digital inclusion is fast becoming a basic requirement for full participation in society.

A Question of Design.

Much of the harm caused by digital exclusion is not inevitable but is the result of choices about how services and systems are designed, which means that much of it could be avoided. When organisations move their services online, they often assume that everyone can follow, designing for the digitally confident majority and treating those who cannot as an afterthought, if they are considered at all.

The result is that essential services, from banking and benefits to healthcare and council functions, can become difficult or impossible to access for those who are not online, effectively excluding them by design. Yet it does not have to be this way, for services can be designed to remain accessible to everyone, keeping open the telephone lines, face-to-face options and paper alternatives that those offline depend on, while also helping people who wish to get online to do so.

The principle that essential services should remain available through more than one channel, so that no one is shut out, is a simple but crucial safeguard against digital exclusion. Equally, the design of digital services themselves can make an enormous difference, for systems that are simple, clear and easy to use are far more accessible to those with limited skills or confidence than those that are complex and confusing.

Building digital inclusion into the design of services from the outset, rather than treating it as an optional extra, would prevent much of the exclusion that currently occurs. As the world becomes ever more digital, the responsibility falls on those who design services, in government, business and beyond, to ensure that the shift online does not leave people behind.

Digital exclusion is, in large part, a problem of design, and that means it is a problem that better design can solve, if the will is there to do so.

We want to hear from you.

Millions remain on the wrong side of the digital divide, cut off from services and savings as daily life moves online.

Have you or someone you know struggled to keep up as services move online?