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Digital By Default - Have we thought about this?

I learned the other day that access to the new single benefit payment will be digital by default. I'm not sure whether some unthinking civil servant has had the idea that we can close the digital divide by enforcing dependency on digital channels, but let me tell you now, it won't work. There are two reasons for this and I can support this with real life examples.

The first relates to a close relative of mine who finds himself homeless. He has a rare, genetic condition that became apparent late in life which means his body cannot process potassium. As a consequence, his kidney's failed, he had heart failure, developed pneumonia and nearly died. The NHS in Wales saved his life. What this means long term is that 12 months on he cannot sustain a job, he's tried. He has lost his home, he is in debt. He has no internet access though he does have a rudimentary knowledge of how to access the Internet so his only option is to go to a public access point - how many of you are up for managing your benefits in the library?

The second reason is that he recently asked me to clear a housing benefit overpayment for him so that he could progress a new application for housing. "Gladly", I said, "give me the details." Armed with invoice numbers and account numbers I started by doing battle with the telephone payments system. After a couple of iterations of a system from which you couldn't escape I thought I'd try online. I found the website, I found the page, I entered the account code - it was invalid. I tried again, I tried variants, I tried checking the details with my relative - it was invalid.

So, what did we do? He went to the offices, sat down with an officer, phoned me and the officer took card details, manually over the phone. See! The system worked, there was a safety net; but wait a minute! I'm a graduate with honours in computer science and 30 plus years in some aspect or other of IT. I've done D-Gov and E-Gov. My home positively brissles with digital. I've spoken on digital, I've written on digital. Is that the problem? Am I approaching this from the wrong angle?

It begs the question doesn't it, what do you need to be digital by default? If I had little or no knowledge of digital, if I was ill, or disabled, or just plain depressed would I persist or would I just give up? Digital Inclusion is not just about showing how it's about empowering people to make digital work for them. Digital by default is not about a digital gateway to benefits, it's about ensuring that we have a digital society that makes sure that digital empowerment is the default; not the other way around.

Tags: Default, Digital

Comment by John Oakley on May 2, 2012 at 15:47: I have a very similar background to you and have exactly the same issues with "digital gateways". It has now reached the point where when I need to interact with any organization I use the phone and then repeatedly press 0 until I get a human on the other end. I've wasted too much of my life using badly designed "press 1 for.." systems and appalling web sites.

If the RSA has a history of design then I would welcome an investigation into human/technology dialogs ( I tried not to use any of the jargon phrases or TLAs as they carry bagage with them).

Comment by Paul Nash on May 2, 2012 at 16:53: Thank you for the comment John and it's quite timely. The UK Government has just appointed a new Digital Advisory Board with Martha Lane-Fox as the Chair. You can see the membership here; while they may all be good men (and women) true, just and experts in their field with the exception of Will Perrin (a man for whom I have great respect) I don't see what it is they could possible know about local government services or the people who are the greatest users of them. Which begs the question: is accessing government services when you are a person leading a chaotic life do you behave as if you were shopping on line or booking a hotel room? My view, for what it is worth, is probably not.

Comment by John Oakley on May 2, 2012 at 17:19: Well Graham Wilson was saying recently that the primary role of government is to provide jobs not to run efficient organizations. As a long-time digital officiando as I come to the end of my ... career - lets leave it at that - I keep asking myself a variation on the question I asked my Dad "What did you do in the war?". His answer made me proud but I dread the day my grandchildren ask the same question about what I did in the Digital Revolution. When my kids asked I was working for (the old) IBM so I glibly answered in IBM-speak and felt proud ( while sipping the KoolAid) . I am now more enlightened and am almost ashamed of my role in spreading the digital disease through society. We did it because we could - not because we should.

I now spend most of time "fixing" problems caused by this rush to "efficiency", mainly damage to people but a very significant amount of damage to business too. In the companies I have helped there is so much time and effort spent in recovering from "computer errors" that any front end simplistic efficiencies are lost by the effort of recover and the invisible lost business due to customer frustration. For example, as I work mainly from home now I requested my ISP to upgrade my residential broadband service to a business service. Same equipment and technology but a "dedicated phone number" to contact them. What I got was my VOIP phone and TV left on my residential service and my broadband and Video on Demand on the business service. Two separate accounts, two NEW phone numbers ( although the "business" one doesn't work), and have lost the ability to autopay both accounts.

The switch was made in January. I FINALLY got it resolved last week by spending all day on my one working phone and escalating until I found a executive who resolved the problem.

Now I have the time and the interest to be almost amused by this - it was a good opportunity to build a case study - but I ended up just like a real human being. I wanted to tear someone's throat out!

When you are under stress you need a human, not a machine. And their "efficient" handling of customers by web and phone tied up the equivalent of a full-time employee for the 7+ hours it took to resolve.

If that had been a life/safety issue and I was less than 100% capable suicide would have been an attractive option by the end of the afternoon.

How does one get on the Digital Advisory Board? I have a raft of similar real world stories. Don't get me started on getting care for my aged mother in the Midlands....

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Every Nation For Itself

	Every Nation For Itself Influential author and strategist Ian Bremmer introduces "G-Zero world", in which no single country has the power to shape a truly global agenda. What are the risks and opportunities in a world without global leadership? Listen to the podcast of the full event including audience Q&A: http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2012/every-nation-for-itself Our events are made possible with the support of our Fellowship. Support us by donating or applying to become a Fellow. Donate: http://www.thersa.org/support-the-rsa Become a Fellow: http://www.thersa.org/fellowship/apply Find out more about GZero: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-Zero	From: theRSAorg Views: 3419 155 ratings
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