What do homeless people really think about Labour's digital ID cards?

“Who’s going to buy me a phone?” That’s Jon’s question as the government prepares to roll out digital ID.

The former rough sleeper – who is currently couch surfing – has a ‘brick phone’ for “calling mates”, but doesn’t have, and doesn’t want, a newer model.

Big Issue spoke to Jon and three other people with experience of homelessness to find out how they feel about the planned implementation of digital ID.

In October, prime minister Keir Starmer told Big Issue the policy could provide rough sleepers with a “passport out of homelessness”.

“This is really helpful for people who are homeless, because quite often they won’t necessarily have the documents they need to access services,” the PM said.

Homelessness charities welcomed the ambition, but raised concerns about accessibility and trust. So how do people with lived experience feel? A mixed picture emerged.

Read more:

• Digital ID cards aren’t progressive – they’re tools of state control
• Digital ID cards: Why control and surveillance are not the answer to Britain’s immigration problem
• From the NHS to the DWP: UK’s new data law will make your life ‘radically different’, minister says

What do people experiencing homelessness think about digital ID?

Brits will need a digital ID to prove their right to work in the UK by 2029, the government announced in September. The policy – intended to tackle illegal working and therefore illegal immigration – has drawn criticism from privacy campaigners, who fear an expansion of state surveillance.

But in an exclusive interview with Big Issue, the prime minister rejected those concerns and argued the policy could benefit the most vulnerable.

Aled, who speaks to Big Issue over the phone from Wales, has “mixed feelings”. After experiencing homelessness and gambling addiction in his 20s, the Bridgeport local was helped by The Wallich, a homelessness charity in Cardiff. The 32-year-old now serves on the charity’s shadow board, made up of people with lived experience of homelessness.

Digital ID has “some potential”, he says, particularly if it removes the need for costly physical ID that is easily lost.

“I’m on the waiting list for an ADHD assessment. My current provisional license is out of date, they also have the wrong address on it. And every time I go online to fix it, I get overwhelmed and it tells me I can’t fix it online. God knows where my birth certificate is right now,” he said.

“I haven’t had a passport since I was 19. I don’t have a lot of money, so I’ve never needed it to go anywhere.”

The move to online may be inevitable, he adds: “I kind of think of the past when our parents, our grandparents had to switch from paper to cards – there’s that evolution that seems like it’s going to happen.”

But access could be a problem. According to the Digital Poverty Alliance, almost 4.5 million adults do not own a smartphone, while around 11 million lack the digital skills needed to complete basic online tasks.

“These problems need to be considered,” said Aled.

“It can help the homeless individuals… at the same time, he’s [Starmer’s] not thinking about how you’re going to need a smartphone. They’re not cheap. Who buys those smartphones? Do the organisations supply them? Is it the government?

“What about internet access, what about 5G? There are just a lot of questions. I can see how it’s going to be beneficial, because you have access to it 24/7, but the systems need to be in place so people can access it.”

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Even if the government can overcome issues of access, there is another major barrier: concerns around privacy

Sully, who was homeless for two years, also serves on The Wallich’s lived experience board. He is concerned that the digital ID roll-out will trigger a greater expansion of state surveillance – the same concerns raised by groups like Big Brother Watch.

“Digital, it can start with simple things like monitoring employment, housing – but things like this don’t usually stay in the same line,” he told Big Issue. “What if another leader wants to expand it to what people buy, for example? There can be broader implications – like in China, there are social statuses and scores that people have to essentially work for.”

China’s social status surveillance is managed through a complex social credit system, using widespread CCTV and facial recognition, apps to monitor individuals and businesses, and to rate their ‘trustworthiness’. Rewards and punishments – like travel bans – ensue.

Regardless of government intention, Sully added, a centralised system for holding data could become a “massive target for hackers”.

“The government states it’s going to have really good encryption. Well, the NHS supposedly has really good encryption, but they’ve had data leaks… this could be a nationwide catastrophe.”

Even if the government promises robust privacy protections, winning trust in disenfranchised groups could prove difficult.

Big Issue meets Jon at an event for vulnerably housed people in London. He raises digital ID before we ask.

“I think this digital ID shit is going to really hammer,” he said. “We’ve already got the cameras and all the rest of it, and they’re going to be using the photo ID – a ‘Big Brother’ type society.”

Jon has never owned a smartphone, and “never will”.

“Everything you’ve ever done on the internet, they’ve got that logged. People used to think that was pure bullshit. It’s not.”

At the same event, 43-year-old Fred – currently staying in a homelessness hostel – said he had not heard about digital ID.

“I don’t know about that… I don’t like it,” the East Londoner said. “What do they want to find out?”

Even if the government promises robust privacy protections, winning trust in disenfranchised groups could prove difficult.

“With people who have been sleeping rough for many years, in nearly every single case, you will find someone has had a negative experience with a service,” said Jasmine Basran, head of policy and campaigns at Crisis.

“And if one of the solutions [to digital exclusion is] going to your local authority to set up your digital ID – that might be the same local authority who, for whatever reason, has turned you away for homelessness assistance in the past.”

Basran urged the government to draw on sector expertise and lived experience to ensure the rollout does not exclude people without phones.

“We see lots of digital exclusion amongst people who are homeless. Some of that is people needing to learn new skills and needing support to understand digital access. But a lot of it is also people not having a device, not having access to Wi-Fi and data.”

Simon Hewett-Avison, CEO of Homeless Oxfordshire, highlighted similar practical concerns.

“There are opportunities here – if it’s done right… but digital exclusion is a massive barrier,” he said. “For a population that’s already discriminated against and isolated, this has the potential, if not done properly or correctly, to isolate further.”

Of the 175 people Oxfordshire Homelessness Link supports at any one time, “less than half” have regular access to computers.

Aled agrees. The policy represents a turning point, he says – and it could go either way.

“In 50 years time, I can see everybody’s going to be doing digital ID, it’s going to be a thing. But right now, the right questions need to be asked.”

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