Digital ID: The Policy That Locks Out Pensioners, Not Criminals
The government’s “digital-by-default” experiment is already failing older citizens. Digital ID would make that failure permanent.
They sold it as a bold solution to fix Britain’s borders — a high-tech tool to “stop the boats” and bring order to immigration. But Digital ID was never about stopping criminals; it’s about controlling citizens.
Research published last week shows significant numbers of older people are already struggling to access essential services online.
The findings, commissioned by the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, reveal how “digital-by-default” systems — from healthcare to banking — are leaving many older adults locked out of vital parts of daily life.
If navigating NHS logins or online forms is already a struggle for older people, imagine what happens when your proof of identity, healthcare access, and benefits are all tied to a mandatory Digital ID.
That’s not inclusion — it’s exclusion on a national scale.
📉 When “digital by default” leaves people behind
The new research from Wales, and covered by the BBC last week, shows a clear warning: as government services move online, many older people are being left behind. The study found that “digital by default” systems — from healthcare and social care to benefits and banking — already disadvantage people over 60.
Exclusion isn’t just about lack of skills or access. It’s built into the system — through inaccessible design, poor testing, and assumptions that everyone is comfortable online. The result is a quiet but growing digital divide in essential parts of everyday life.
If services like GP bookings, housing forms, or pension checks are already difficult to access, imagine what happens when proof of identity, healthcare, and benefits all depend on a single Digital ID. That’s not inclusion — it’s exclusion by design.
🧓 The generation most at risk
Digital ageism isn’t about older people being unwilling to learn — it’s about systems that never considered them in the first place.
Designers rarely include older adults in testing; interfaces are built for “digital natives”; and policymakers often assume that anyone offline is simply out of touch. The truth is that many older citizens are keen to use digital tools — but they’re being failed by design.
Sound familiar? It’s exactly how the Digital ID conversation is being framed:
“Don’t worry — it’ll make things easier for everyone.”
Except it won’t. It’ll make life easier for government databases, not for the 11 million over-65s who still struggle with online banking, NHS logins, or password apps.
💥 Other reasons Digital ID is a terrible idea
Digital exclusion is just one of the many flaws in the Digital ID agenda. Let’s not forget why it was floated in the first place: to “stop the boats” and tackle illegal immigration.
That line was pure spin. As I wrote earlier this year in Digital ID Hasn’t Stopped Illegal Immigration, Europe has proven it doesn’t work:
Germany — rising levels of illegal working despite a long-standing national digital ID.
Italy — nearly 1 million boat arrivals since 2015 with full biometric ID systems.
Greece — digital ID cards and suspended asylum rights, yet crossings continue.
Spain — tens of thousands working illegally in agriculture with valid ID cards.
If Digital ID doesn’t stop illegal migration where it’s been in place for years, then it’s not about “security.” It’s about control.
And that’s before we even reach the other dangers:
🔒 Mass data collection — a centralised database of personal, financial, and health information ripe for misuse or hacking.
🕵️ Mission creep — today an ID to access the NHS, tomorrow a QR code to buy alcohol or vote.
🧠 Algorithmic profiling — your “digital footprint” used to assess risk, credit, or behaviour without oversight.
🚫 Civil liberties — every scan, login, and purchase traceable by government or corporate systems.
When a government builds a tool that can monitor, rank, and restrict access to services, it rarely gives that power back.
🧾 The bigger picture
Starmer and Blair want Digital ID to underpin everything from immigration checks to NHS access. But it’s the same mindset that has already caused chaos in welfare reform, with digital-only portals excluding thousands.
And now we have the evidence: research from Wales shows older people are already being left behind by digitisation — proof enough that expanding it into identity systems would only deepen the divide.
This isn’t about being “anti-tech.” It’s about protecting rights — especially for those most likely to be excluded, monitored, or mislabelled by digital bureaucracy.
🧩 Final thought
The push for Digital ID isn’t inclusion — it’s control. And in the rush to digitise identity, Labour is forgetting the one identity that really matters: being treated equally, regardless of age, income, or ability.
Older people built this country. They paid into the system. They shouldn’t need a QR code to prove they exist.
✍️ Jamie Jenkins
Stats Jamie | Stats, Facts & Opinions
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📚 If you found this useful, you might also want to read:
👉 The £15 Billion Asylum Scandal: The More Boats That Arrive, the More the Contractors Earn — A decade-long deal that turned a small-boat crisis into big business — billions in spending, record arrivals, and hundreds of millions in profit for the same three firms.
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You say old folk shouldn't need a QR code to prove they exist and you're right - nobody should have to be forced into being merely a string of binary numbers or whatever. However, I reckon quite a few "people" who don't exist have digital IDs and QR codes all around the world - it's a scheme pretty much designed for crooks isn't it? You don't have to prove you physically exist, just that you exist in a computer system. I bet there are many claimants and benefit recipients around Europe getting free money whilst not actually physically existing. Politicians are the dumbest dumb people around.