Gov Launches £9.5m Fund to Help More UK People Get Online
The UK Government (DSIT) has today moved to complement their recently introduced Digital Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) by launching a new £9.5m Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund (DIIF). The fund is designed to support local authorities, charities and research organisations in helping to get people online who might otherwise struggle.
According to some recent data from Ofcom, the proportion of UK adults with home internet access (broadband) remains plateaued at 94% (here) and the majority of adults without access at home report a lack of interest in having it. Some 81% stated that they see no need to connect online, although 43% of those who don’t go online at home have still asked someone else to do something for them online.
In addition, 76% of those who do not go online at home reported that nothing would prompt them to get connected in the next 12 months, which helps to underline the challenge that the government faces in trying to address this most complex of issues.
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The new £9.5m Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund (DIIF) will attempt to help address this by working with local councils, charities and research organisations to offer grants worth £25,000 to £500,000 to help boost digital inclusion and skills in England. The devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will determine their own arrangements for the distribution of funding to best support local digital inclusion.
Funding Allocations for Devolved Governments
Allocations for the Devolved Governments for this FY (25-26) have been calculated on a per capita basis and amount to:
➤ £400,368 for Wales
➤ £764,020 for Scotland
➤ £267,249 for Northern Ireland
The money will be used to support the “best and smartest ways of tackling digital exclusion“, which could include putting on workshops to familiarise people with tech or schemes donating devices like phones and laptops to the digitally excluded. In terms of the latter, it’s worth noting that the government’s IT Reuse for Good charter is already working to donate used-tech to those who need it.
Sir Chris Bryant, UK Telecoms Minister, said:
“It is unacceptable that in 2025, millions of people across the UK simply can’t access the vast opportunities that technology and the online world offers. Digital inclusion is an essential for modern life and work, not just something that’s nice to have, and it forms a critical part of our Plan for Change.
Making technology widely accessible could be the thing that means a sick patient can speak to a GP remotely, or that helps a young person successfully apply for a job. Through this funding we’re moving further to empower local leaders and groups nationwide, who are already working tirelessly to get their communities connected and change countless lives for the better.”
Despite the challenges, the government views tackling digital exclusion as “crucial to raising living standards across the UK“, such as by helping more people apply for jobs online, shop online, use the NHS app to book doctor’s appointments, or get advice on government services through tools like GOV.UK Chat etc. Some research shows that digitally excluded people pay up to 25% more on average than consumers who are online.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I do wonder how many of those people who don’t use it will be incapable of using it. e.g. My Grandmother has alzheimers disease and cannot manage to use the toilet or shower properly, never mind switch a computer on. My late Grandfather did have internet access, and did use it, but couldn’t manage when he got ill with cancer.
On my Dad’s side of the family, my grandfather did consider getting a computer around the millenium but never did. By the 2010s he was too old to really manage it.
Alzheimer’s is an awful thing, and I am sorry to hear about your grandmother, but they are talking about I presume people who are in a position to use devices on the net, remember, computers are not the only thing that connects to the net, you can stream video, music, connect phones and tablets. You can listen to radio stations, but in my opinion, it is not really radio when you do that. You can get books for ereaders and if you want to control smart home devices.
Most people will use it for streaming, but do people really want to pay out for something just to stream video and music, if that is all they are doing with it? I sometimes look at how much I am paying per month and think is it really worth it and I do a lot more using my broadband.
Yes, there are people who may use someone else’s internet, my brother used to use mine, until I forced him to get his own as he was using it more and more. If that person is only using it now and again, then is it worth paying out? Years ago, it was possible to go to the library and use it, but I don’t think ours do now. Before that, we had Microfiche readers.
People who are on low wages, pensions or benefits of some kind, may not be able to afford the cost of broadband per month or just think it is money they could use elsewhere.
BT is about the cheapest I think at £21 for social tariff, Virgin has a cheaper one, but you need to be in a Virgin area. BT have cheaper ones, but they are for people with no fibre of Zero income. I think if you had zero income, broadband would be the last of your worries.
Maybe PAYG would be a option for some people, maybe not, I used to be on PAYG broadband with Metronet, you pay so much for so many GB of data and then pay for extra, it was fine for me at the time, that was using FTTC. Plusnet took them over, and it closed in 2016, I left before then once Plusnet took them over.
It is fine educating people about broadband and what it may do for them, but spending £9.5m on it when there are people going hungry and living on the streets is ridicules.
It would be helpful if we could have a breakdown of those without internet access by age.
We all know what it’ll say, Dave. Which demographic has charities representing it that protest them being expected to do things online and demand others pay for them to be able to avoid doing so?
You can lead a horse to water….
Spending millions when the main barrier is apathy is really just a waste of money.
The term ‘digital exclusion’ for 6% of the population I feel is incorrect. Also perhaps it is not apathy or incapacity. I believe that a significant number of that 6% WANT to be off grid and left alone by GOV.UK and others. However, it seems we all must be forced into the uncertain world of technology with its strident advertising, scams, frauds and government requirements (such as tax).
Who can blame them?
I have no idea what tax has to do with being online but am fairly confident a significant proportion of a couple of million people aren’t living in forests and caves self-sufficient for food, water, not using the NHS, roads, etc. Maybe we have very different definitions of off the grid.
Apart from that, sure.
‘It is unacceptable that in 2025, millions of people across the UK simply can’t access the vast opportunities that technology and the online world offers.’
Good to see government running, as always, on a data driven approach. Even though it’s not ‘can’t’ or even apathy it’s very much ‘won’t’ they’re continuing to spend our money trying to push them online, and while they fail to using our money to ensure they don’t need to by paying more people than otherwise to answer phones, open envelopes, staff counters, etc.
Some of these people may have no interest in being online. I know of one person who don’t have online access, don’t even have a mobile phone but is thinking of getting a dumb phone since BT have said he needs to go digital with his home phone and that means fibre as he lives in an area where there is no FTTC for new or recontracting customers, so a mobile phone it is, but he has no need for a smartphone, just got to find a tariff that is suited for a dumb phone and don’t cost a lot.
He copes fine, apart from getting annoyed when shops nag him to download an app for this and a App for that. I can relate with that, and I have a smartphone.
He says what does he need a smartphone or internet for, I do tell him of things he can do, but he always has an answer and to be honest I agree with him. He pays his bills in his local shop or most of them, his local shop has a cash machine, so he can use that for checking his bank account. He uses cash, never cards, watches normal TV, even records onto a DVD recorder.
I could not live like it now, but he does.
I think the amount of money that is going to be used is far too much when there are people going hungry in this country.
@Ad47UK
Try the ASDA mobile option with PAYG great for infrequent, or short calls or a backup phone for emergency. Use monthly optional bundles if you are going to need to make a good few calls or texts (say around Christmas).
I dont the issue is money at this point, I have a neighbour sharing my wifi which I really regret doing now, as they on the hooter the minute it goes down for any reason. and their IPTV is on around the clock.
But anyway they are the sort of people, who think everything has to be provided to them, and think that something like an aerial, cable tv or satellite tv should be provided for them, they can definitely afford to pay for it, they just wont. They just wont go through the process of contacting a supplier, ordering service, that sort of thing. So even with a grant they wouldnt do it.
@greggles: While i think you have been very kind and generous too your neighbour, never a good idea too share your WiFi, as it could be used for nefarious purposes, by them, causing you problems. Best too have a friendly chat, suggesting they take out their own internet connection, as they seem to be freeloaders when they can afford their own! They have some cheek, contacting you, asking why your internet is down! — unbelievable!
Agree, never a good idea to share your broadband.