AIBU to think that Digital ID will not stop illegal immigration, and nor is it a good idea?

Everyone, including the government is aware of the dodgy deliveroo drivers, vape shops and barbers that are presumably money laundering or selling illegal stuff. Nothing is done. I’ve recently had to go through a load of legal stuff and have had to prove who I am multiple times etc. How do these illegals get away with it?

Will the NHS stop / refuse to treat people without a card, will criminals get deported, will it stop the illegal vape shops and barbers. IMO the answer is NO, they are just trying to make it look as if they are doing something. This something will simply just mean we all have to pay for a card when actually the honest hard working people can easily price who they are.

that is what i heard also

To operate the system successfully you would have to introduce it for everyone.

BUT what happens to drug addicts, alcoholics, those with learning difficulties. No ID card, no benefits. If they make ANY exclusions the system will have failed.

I do not agree with ID cards.

One of the big problems with the likes of Deliveroo and illegal workers is subcontracting. So a perfectly legitimate person gets a delivery round (and one with uber etc etc) but they then get someone else (would is not a legitimate worker) to do the actual delivery and pay them a proportion of the fee. So the only way to stop it is to get the police to stop people on delivery bikes and check their ID and send them to an immigration detention centre if they are working illegally. I can't see it happening.

We don't know who our government is going to be. Europe is currently moving left and rightwards (mostly right). Even democratic governments can come up with harebrained or controlling policies. Also, once you give someone a power they tend to use it. I can remember when we were told, for example, that smart meters were just a more convenient way to submit meter readings. Now there is talk of energy companies using them to introduce surge pricing, and so on.

Hacking, identity theft, losing your phone; these are also big worries with this scheme. I don't trust the idea, I don't trust the government to implement it properly and securely and I don't trust future governments in how they will use it to control our behaviour.

Exactly, anyone that's working black is working under the radar anyway the only way this would make a difference is if there was actual spot checks in workplaces which immigration do sometimes but to be effective they would have to do a hell of a lot more also it's not only immigrants that work cash in hand, I really don't think this is about immigration

They have IDs yes that are also physical and digital.

you also have a load of digital IDs anyway. Tax oauer reference, driving licence number passport number and all the rest

Is the king getting one?

It means the capacity for things to go south is much higher with a larger database.

Imagine the cost now. Illegal working, dodged taxes, NHS treatment not paid for by taxes, I’m totally ok with a formal, you have the right to work and use services in the uk. Totally.

They do. But they've had a system set up for years so not merging things and setting up a new system and they want the all singing all dancing system the British will be after

Quite beyond abuse by Government (which is bad enough), what about hackers? M&S, the Co-op, JLR and many others have been ground to a halt by ransomware. Imagine that sort of hack being applied across every person in the whole country!

Wouldn't a better example be, say, Denmark where they've had digital ID for ages rather than non-democractic China? We are far more similar to Denmark or France or Germany than we are to China.

For a start it's going to need a bigger database cos there's a bigger population here

@RedToothBrush - bigger population than where? France's population is only a million fewer than ours and Germany's is over 10 million more.

@GoodTimesNoodleSalad - the government can (and do to some degree already) do all of those things already if they really want to. If you think they can't then I have a bridge to sell you!

Reform says "It's laughable that those already breaking immigration law will suddenly comply, or that digital IDs will have any impact on illegal work, all it will do is impinge further on the freedoms of law-abiding Brits." - I would venture that actually all it will do is impinge further on the freedoms of law-abiding Brits *with noncaucasian skin tone" because I bet there will be bias in who/how/where/when the ID is demanded, and it will be used as a tool or harassment like the Pass laws in South Africa.

Yes, the fact that it's a digital ID is most worrying. A click of a button somewhere and it could be used to stop you from accessing all sorts of things or, alternatively, compel you to do others. Big Brother, The Handmaid's Tale, social credit, controlling where you spend your money or what you can spend it on. All very sinister and all potentially one step closer if the government is handed this kind of power. Your card gets flagged and then all of a sudden you are frozen out of all services, all public transport, all shops UK-wide.

Agree- in this day and age, the applications and potential abuses are terrifying.

The countries that do border many other countries and can be used in lieu of a passport.

Because a lot of people in Britain really, really don't like the idea. To the extent that when we last did, in WW2, we got rid of them afterwards. So although they've been mooted sometimes, no government has ever gone there because the political risk and expense weren't worth it.

I'm totally against this for the reasons many others have already posted. I'll be interested to know what they intend this ID to store: name, DOB, NI Number, NHS number, address, photo, driving licence status, etc.

Disaster waiting to happen. I'm also not sure how you are meant to be able to prove who you are to get one of these if you don't already have some form of government-issued ID?

You’d just buy a fake one as my sister did when she was illegal in the US for 7 years.

It feels very Black Mirror, I am very far from the tin foil hat brigade but I am not comfortable with it for the reasons many others have already said.

Hate to break it to you but everything you say there is already the case (apart from it being compulsory to have a passport).

Not sure where the moped thing comes in though 😕