LABOUR will today push ahead with plans to let Brits access public services through a single government app under their controversial digital ID scheme.
Ministers are launching a consultation on the proposal, which would allow people to prove who they are online “in one safe place, at the touch of a button”.
The digital ID could be used for things like free childcare vouchers, tax, passports and driving licences, replacing piles of paperwork and repeated checks.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones will warn in a speech the current system often rewards “pushy” people who know how to work the system, while others struggle to get help.
He will say: “The status quo is a legacy system of call centres, paperwork and the need to tell your story multiple times to different parts of government, with hours on hold and not knowing where you are in the process…
“We all know that the status quo rewards those who know how to play the system.
“Those with the resources, the time, the connections, the confidence – perhaps even a pushiness – to get themselves to the front of the queue.
“People who know how navigate a maze of confusing and time-consuming checks, forms, rooms and front-desks.
“Government by app will instead make public services work for everyone, in one safe place, at the touch of a button.”
Sir Keir Starmer first proposed digital IDs last year as part of plans to modernise public services and tighten right-to-work checks.
But he later dropped plans to make the IDs mandatory, confirming the scheme would instead be voluntary.
