- Conference
- 2024 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 13 June 2024
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
A recent study by Age UK showed that a total of 2.7 million people aged 65 and over do not use the internet, equivalent to around one in five (22%) of this age group.
This group of people are becoming left behind and excluded from an increasingly digital world. From this point of view, a number of trends are very worrying:
1.Bank closures, leaving whole towns without a single bank branch; not everyone can or wishes to use online banking;
2.The BT “digital voice” programme to switch landline telephones over to an internet connection;
3.G.P. online triage and appointment systems;
4.Increasing reliance on online shopping, exacerbating the decline of our town centre shops;
5.Increasing difficulty in contacting organisations other than online.
In its Briefing Paper, “Facts and figures about digital inclusion and older people” September 2023, Age UK says that ”…people should be supported and encouraged to get online, but those who cannot or do not want to do so should be able to access services and support in a way that suits them”.
This motion calls upon the National Retired Members Committee to support in any ways possible the campaigns by Age UK and the Digital Poverty Alliance to highlight the problem of digital exclusion amongst the elderly.