Northumberland News: AGE UK, NEPA, and Good Things agree That the digital divide and social exclusion is growing.

Northumberland Labour Councillors suggest how people can be helped!

Labour Councillors across Northumberland have been expressing their concern over the massive change in digital technology being thrust upon the elderly and vulnerable as landlines disappear and Sky recorder boxes are being replaced with IPTV services.

Labour Councillors have noted and voiced on their social media that people they represent believe digital exclusion is worsening and the access to services of and from huge organisations such as the NHS and DWP are now being geared towards those who feel they can manage their lives online.

With GP’s often asking people to supply pictures of this and that health condition many elderly and vulnerable folk who have not got the ability to manage this task are feeling ever more excluded from society which has moved away from telephone contact to differing social media.

The big money printing machines in the digital business are also causing flux which is alien to many who find digitalisation isn’t for them. The replacement of landlines with digital phones is causing huge headaches for those who worry about their health condition and have helplines fitted in their homes hard wired to telephone exchanges geared to assist them when required. The worry that regular power cuts caused by bad weather across many rural counties like Northumberland will leave them cut off from their aid services in the event of an emergency. They are also concerned about any added costs paying for the internet will add to their bills.

One of the added concerns for Northumberland Labour Councillors and their membership is the potential loss of the EE shop in Blyth, Northumberland, the Counties largest Town and the silence over the retention of EE's Ashington shop just as BT’s massive domestic business is transferred over to them.

This potential store loss caused by Northumberland Conservatives closing the Keel Row centre in the Town of Blyth in the name of levelling up comes just as EE is really needed by people as they have been handed the opportunity to help balance the digital divide just as other conglomerates are changing and milking the services they deliver.

In allowing this latest change to digital business used by people in their homes the Government hasn’t even glanced at its own data before giving the nod to the removal of more cash from society, increased social isolation through the potential loss of confidence in the telephone network with and estimated 10.2 million people lacking the most basic digital skill other than using a Sky recorder box (about to be phased out by Sky) 22 million whose main use of digital technology is a basic mobile phone used to speak with friends and relatives whom the Tories call ‘left behind’ society members, one million households who have dropped out of digital use through the massive effect of the economic crisis and huge numbers whose only now have pay as you go mobile internet access that they must retain to make contact with DWP daily, leaving children completely deprived of educational access to digital services through the growth of Britain's two tier society, the haves and the have-nots.

In Northumberland the help people need has been provided mainly through its network of Community Centres who help with training and open daytime access for job search etc. This service is being minimised through the grant reductions from the County Council leading to permanent loss as the Council cuts back on youth and community services and has contracted out its Leisure services, run successfully by a trust for decades who joined in with this valuable and much needed service set.

Labour Councillors need to be convinced by EE that they will retain their Ashington shop, relocate their shop in Blyth Town Centre and begin a program to ensure local people get the help they need to move forward digitally speaking if they can, or the have nots will grow increasing poverty and deprivation across a wider slice of Northumberland’s population.