Digital ID

[Ihavepaidalotforthisstory]

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

Digitisation has already transformed so many parts of our lives – from how we shop, travel and bank.

But there’s so much more we can do to make people’s lives easier, simpler and more secure.

The digital ID is about putting power back in people’s hands, cutting the faff out of rummaging through drawers for documents and pointless bureaucracy we have accepted for too long while bringing Britain into the modern age.

This can be a boarding pass to getting on in life, helping people get a bank account, apply for a job or access childcare. Countries across the world are reaping the benefits of digital IDs, the British public should be able to as well.

Examples of how digital ID will make life easier include:

Social levelling: Giving everyone a form of photo ID for free, so those without passports or driving licences can open a bank account or get a job as easily as those that do.
Applying for a mortgage: Letting people prove who they are digitally instead of sending physical documents or paying for private verification services.
Renting a home: Making it possible for renters to prove their right to rent instantly, without hunting down old paperwork.
Protecting against fraud: Keeping identity information safe on your phone instead of relying on physical documents that can be lost or stolen.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-digital-id-to-make-life-easier-for-millions

Honestly, who is he kidding?

Why can’t he just make passports cheap as chips/free instead if he wants everyone to be able to have a free for, of ID. I realise that would be no good for people who aren’t British, my own husband being one of those people, but they have their own passports.

Saying it’s easier to get a mortgage or rent a house because you won’t have to find paperwork is beyond ludicrous. Let’s spend a billion pounds so we don’t have to look for some paperwork or have it verified.

It's embarrassing watching them try to justify what a great digital ID's are... it seems clear to me that the general public aren't in favour of this.

I think it's a terrible idea... hackers on the other hand they would love it!

Sounds perfectly reasonable. Its absurd that the UK doesn't have such a system already.

With a digital ID the government may follow Vietnam's recent lead and remove bank accounts of those who failed to comply with biometric verification. This compulsion is a tool that is going to become very common worldwide.

From Yahoo News (the completely impartial BBC didn't report on it for some reason):

Vietnamese commercial banks began removing over 86 million bank accounts in early September 2025 after the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) enforced new biometric requirements. Authorities say the policy targets accounts lacking face or fingerprint verification and aims to curb fraud, cybercrime, and money laundering.
The country has an estimated 200 million bank accounts. Following the nationwide review, approximately 113 million remained active. Accounts flagged as inactive or not updated with biometric data faced deletion, leaving many residents scrambling to meet compliance deadlines.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vietnam-bank-account-purge-boosts-095332550.html

When Blair wanted it I was opposed but now we've so much of a digital footprint I'm much closer to 'meh'.

Protecting against fraud: Keeping identity information safe on your phone instead of relying on physical documents that can be lost or stolen.

Might be the worst argument yet. Phones of course famously never get lost, stolen or hacked. Some document filed in my house is FAR LESS likely to be stolen or get lost than my phone. Desperate stuff to justify this authoritative bs.

I genuinely can't tell if you're being serious or not 😳....??

Applying for a mortgage: Letting people prove who they are digitally instead of sending physical documents or paying for private verification services.

Estate agents will still charge a fee for ID checks no doubt. 🙄

It’s not wanted by most and a farce. Hopefully Labour will implode anyway before Starmer brings it in.

EU settled status is digital. What is the issue?

You can't see an issue? Why do you support the government spending millions of tax payers money on something that isn't even needed?
As it isn't needed don't you wonder why it's actually being pushed?

The cost is the issue for me.

The state and various private entities require you to prove who you are but there is no free ID in the uk. It's stupid and unfair to people without a passport.

Pretty much all eu countries have an ID card and none of them have any problems with it.

I used to be against ID cards before I lived in the eu but now its a complete non issue to me. The police have never asked for my card, I've only used it to get services I'm entitled to get.

I really don't see what you think you are losing given you have a phone and so don't have any data privacy and you are a UK citizen so the government has you in a million databases already.

I don’t think anyone thinks they are losing anything.

I’ve never been denied a service I’m entitled to in the UK.

People who are ‘without a passport’ are without one because they are expensive.

There is a free photo ID in the Uk which was brought in when people had to have photo ID to vote.

I don’t have an objection to having ID. I just don’t think we as a country can afford it.

It may work fine in other countries but the British have had issues with ID cards, whether they are physical or digital for years. It's goes against the Civil Liberties that many in the UK consider to be very important.

There are many other options to access photo ID it is not necessary and people know this. People are rightly concerned about government overreach and view mandatory digital IDs as a step toward authoritarian control.

I really struggle to see why anyone gets worked up about this.
Of all the things labour has done badly this isn’t one of them.
Quite looking forward to getting mine.

Why are you looking forward to it? In what way is your life going to improve because you have a form of digital ID?

I agree that the UK needs more accessible universal ID than passports and driver's license.

I don't think making digital ID essentially mandatory to have the right to do pretty much anything needed is the route to take. If it was an option to expand access, that would be fine, but making it mandatory to work raises my anger.

EU settled status is digital. What is the issue?

That's part of the problem - this has all been tested on continuously moving the goalpost for migrants. The goal post will be moved with this as well. If this was all going to work on stopping illegal migration and illegal working, that would have been fixed with the previous iterations - they didn't.

They brought in Biometric ID for non-EU migrants, making the indefinite leave visas in our foreign passports no longer 'safe enough' to prove right to work or access services, or do anything but travel. People had to prove their residency since they got indefinite leave to remain and pay about £300 a pop, including fees to "private partners" to process our documents. This meant some people lost rights they already had - people, particularly women, who had been unpaid home carers were among those who didn't have the limited paperwork required to prove residency for 10-20+ years, never mind the outdated need to have someone of a particular profession vouch for who you are which already puts barriers in place for other ID. I was one of those people.

All those £300 IDs all had the same expiration date of December 2024, because that's when the goalpost was going to be moved to Digital ID.

I went through all the hoops of that and all the hoops to get citizenship so no government could move the goalpost on me again - and now that's what they're doing. They're once again saying the ID I have isn't good enough to have the right to work and services, I'll need to jump through another set of hoops.

It's like they want to treat our rights as a subscription service.

And where would you like the money for this to come from?

Would you be equally happy to have this under a Reform government?

The UK has the habit of introducing a good thing and then misusing it to the detriment of people who are other wise law abiding.

The model I am afraid of is that used by China, whereby your social credit is tracked and your score limits what you can spend your money on and limits your ability access things like foreign travel, & services etc.

I foresee 1) we would try to pay for an item but first need to tap your ID, your socal credit score would then either enable or disable the payment platform to be accessed by your credit card or indeed cash. 2) You have bought too much alcohol this month computer says no. 3) The Govt is broke, so the chancelleor would quickly follow the Vietnam route and move monies from bank accounts to the Treasury etc etc. Who decides what makes a good citizen with a good social credit, the left the right? Would it stop high street thefts, no it would probably make them worse because people want to bypass being ID'd, how would it stop the boat people /illegal immigration?

I am honestly looking for an upside.

Quite @Wibble128. There is a naivety here.

Why?

It's about control ! 🙄