Mencap—written evidence (DCL0027)

House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee inquiry ‘Digital exclusion and cost of living’

About Mencap

Our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to live happy and healthy lives. We do this by supporting the 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK and their families, improving access to health and care services as well as education and employment.

A learning disability is caused by the way the brain develops before, during or shortly after birth. It is always lifelong and affects intellectual and social development.

We welcome the opportunity to feed into this response, given the increased likelihood of digital exclusion that people with a learning disability face and the serious consequences it can lead to.[1]

1.              What are the main causes of digital exclusion in the UK? What is the economic and social impact?

1. It is our view that there are two main causes of digital exclusion in the UK for people with a learning disability which are often intertwined: accessibility and affordability of connections and devices.

2.                                                                                The inaccessibility of online services and websites is a key barrier for people with a learning disability and can cause total digital exclusion: disabled adults are more than twice as likely to have never used the internet.[2] However inaccessible services can also lead to limited or narrow internet use or only using the internet via others (proxy users), thus impacting the extent to which people with a learning disability feel able to avail of online services.

3. Affordability of internet connections and devices is also a key factor in digital exclusion and is far more likely to be an issue for disabled people[3] who have increased rates of poverty and material deprivation.

4. Digital exclusion affects people with a learning disability in myriad ways and can inhibit: the public services they use; work they do; entertainment they consume, their finances; their access to education, the information they have access to and their ability to maintain social connections and reduce isolation. The impacts can be acute given that they often compound existing social, health and employment inequalities and have been hastened by the rapid and wide-raging increase in the digitalisation of services, socialising and working precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]

5. Digital exclusion can have a profound impact on the health of people with a learning disability and the way in which they access services.  During the pandemic, many people with a learning disability struggled with basic automated telephone systems, using the 111 service and/or booking online appointments. We are concerned about the long-term impacts of ever-increasing digital delivery and how people will be able to get in touch with the healthcare services they need if the digital divide for disabled people persists. This is particularly the case for GP consultations which play a crucial role in both delivering annual health checking for people with a learning disability and act as a gatekeeper to additional NHS services.

6. Digital exclusion is also a major barrier to managing benefit claims for many people with a learning disability. For example, whilst updates can be made over the phone or in person in some cases, the process for applying for Universal credit and managing payments is almost entirely digital. Plus, claimant's require regular internet access to maintain contact with work coaches and apply for jobs; failing to meet those requirements can lead to sanctions. In this way, not having regular internet access can push people with a learning disability deeper into poverty.

7. We also have concerns that persistence of digital exclusion is a barrier to employment for many people with a learning disability, as we see increased home working becoming the norm in many sectors. Many people with a learning disability will require additional support to successfully utilise a wide range of required programmes, including multiple video call platforms, online document sharing and other shared programmes in order to participate fully in increasingly online world of work. Digital exclusion can mean that people with a learning disability are not supported to achieve this.

2.              How has the rising cost of living affected digital exclusion? a) To what extent does digital exclusion exacerbate cost of living pressures?

8. The primary impact of the rising cost of living has been reduced access to the internet due to barriers around affordability and costs of connectivity.  Currently, two million households are struggling to afford their internet bills and a recent YouGov survey found that 36% of adults had cut back their spending on digital access due to cost-of-living pressures.[5] These issues were compounded by above-inflation mid-contract broadband and mobile phone rate increases in April. [6]

9. This needs to be set in the context of rising overall living expenses and increased costs of disabled people: up to £583 a month more than someone without a disability.[7] This makes purchasing high-speed internet extremely costly for many people with a learning disability.

10. Digital exclusion has in turn exacerbated cost of living pressures for people with a learning disability; the negative impacts of remaining offline have become more acute as an increasing number of supplier services and support networks have become digital-only.[8] Throughout this crisis information about government energy bill schemes have almost exclusively been online. Online access has also been a vital route for people with a learning disability to find out information about local hardship grants such as the Household Support Fund.

3.              What are the obstacles to greater digital inclusion? Where is policy intervention likely to have the greatest impact over the next 12 months and 5 years? a) To what extent would these changes help unlock economic growth?

11. In an effort to address the affordability barrier to digital inclusion, some providers offer a social tariff. However these are often at different prices, quality and have different eligibility criteria. This contributes to the low take-up of social tariffs amongst the public – as low as 3% by some estimations.[9] There are also concerns that the level of support on offer is too low, meaning that disabled people who do qualify are often not adequately supported.  Ofcom research estimated that a more affordable social tariff for universal credit recipients would be closer to £4-£7 range, rather than the typical £15-£20 rate currently offered.[10]

12. The most impactful policy intervention would be greater support for a standardised, mandatory social tariff from all internet providers that delivers discounted internet connections for disabled people. This should be a co-funded by Government and the telecommunications industry and should account for the different online needs of disabled households. This would be recognition that the internet is an essential utility - taking a lead from the warm home discount scheme in the energy sector, as well as the existing social tariffs for water.[11]

4.              How effective are Government initiatives at addressing digital exclusion? What further action is needed, and what should be done to provide offline access to services?

13. Most Government initiatives are aimed at addressing individual barriers in isolation – whether that is skills, affordability, or the availability of decent connections – and do not consider how these barriers interact with one another, how they interact with existing barriers for people with a learning disability, and the ways they might be confronted together.

14. It is shocking that the Government’s last Digital Inclusion Strategy is from 2014; the scale and characteristics of digital exclusion have changed immeasurably since then. The strategy does not accurately reflect current challenges highlighted by the pandemic and exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis or the persistent of the digital divide for people with a learning disability.

15. Government has introduced some plans to address barriers of skills and accessibility such as DCMS’s Digital Inclusion Fund 2019.  However, these schemes have often not been adequately targeted at adults without basic digital skills. Government also introduced plans to address the affordability of connections and technology, through the DCMS funded ‘Digital Lifeline Fund’ to provide devices and data to people with learning disabilities unable to afford internet access through 5,000 tablets pre-loaded with data and free tech-support. Whilst this was a positive step, there was no indication of a commitment to continue long-term support to address systematic barriers to digital inclusion for people with a learning disability.

16. We urge the Government to introduce a targeted and long-term cross-sector plan which fully integrates the access needs of people with a learning disability and which is promoted by DWP and HMRC. The strategy should also facilitate hyper-local community solutions that are backed up by requisite funding.

5.              How well are existing industry initiatives (for example cheaper internet tariffs) addressing digital exclusion? How could they be enhanced?

17. See point 14 and 15.

6 March 2023

4