In Focus Consumer Credit
to-day interactions with essential and also financial services, because they are not able to get online. One of our clients was paying a fifth of
her income in utility bills and did not know how to use comparison websites or go about switching energy supplier. This placed a heavy burden on her finances at a time when she had not worked for five years due to being diagnosed with cancer. With digital exclusion more widespread
amongst the low-income demographic and those with certain health conditions and disabilities, it is imperative that the essential services cater for their requirements. These findings highlight the continued importance of non-digital communication and access channels, and provide vital context when designing remedies to market problems involving such consumers.
Universal Credit This is a particularly relevant discussion as Universal Credit claims exceed 1.1 million. This flagship welfare reform is ‘digital
by default’, with applications and claims managed online. For many, this has proved to be a stumbling block and has, in turn
June 2017
www.CCRMagazine.co.uk
meant that accessing benefits has become something of an obstacle course. Another of our clients, who is not
computer literate and does not have internet access as home, was left without income for three months when his Universal Credit claim was closed due to the fact that he had missed an appointment, which he was only notified about through the online system.
Still another client, also unfamiliar with
computers and who suffers with severe arthritis that makes using them a struggle, was supported by her local CAP Debt Centre to make a Universal Credit claim. At this particular time, she was not able
to afford to get herself to the Jobcentre in order to use the computers there and it took several trips to collect all the paperwork needed from her home to complete the application, which has to be started from scratch each time.
With digital exclusion more widespread amongst the low-income demographic and those with certain health conditions and disabilities, it is imperative that the essential services cater for their requirements
Inclusive services There is obviously a wider social undertone to this discussion. Digital exclusion needs to be a key consideration in policy design and initiatives to improve life chances. Nevertheless, in a world of ‘treating
customers fairly’, we have a responsibility to ensure each customer is able to interact with our services in a manner they are able and comfortable with. It is clear that offline channels have not yet become obsolete. CCR
Read the full briefing paper at
capuk.org/offline- andshutout17
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