Partnering with DWP to build digital skills for claiming benefits online
Many public services have a moved to digital platforms as their primary means of customer engagement. This can improve access, enables business efficiencies, and can help avoid long wait times for in-person or telephone appointments. However, with 7% of the population of Wales not online due to costs, access or knowledge, it can also mean that some customers are left behind. There is therefore a responsibility for a provision of equitable services to those who are not online or provide attainable opportunities to get online.
In the UK, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible the state benefits system. There have been innovative movements towards online systems for application and management of customers’ state benefits. However, there remains a minority (16%) of DWP customers who say they are currently offline. For instance, over a third (36%) of Pension Credit customers report that they have never used the internet. Customers who are offline reported that lack of interest, fear and lack of digital skills are all barriers to being online.
During 2024, Digital Communities Wales: Digital Confidence, Health and Well-being (DCW) worked collaboratively with the DWP to produce a series of webinars on the topic of supporting people with the digital skills to access benefits services such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. At DCW we pride ourselves on providing useful and informative digital champions support to key community stakeholders in Wales, such as staff and volunteers of organisations, who can utilise their training to support members of the public.
Together, we developed a webinar that explored the transferable digital skills associated with an online benefits claim, as well as methods to support the development of these skills and support people to get online. Skills such as filling out forms or navigating webpages safely are transferable to many day-to-day digital tasks. Key activities included signposting to useful resources such as Good Things Foundation’s Learn My Way platform, the National Databank and Ofcom’s list of social tariffs.
Over a period of 6 months, we delivered 9 training sessions to 206 staff and volunteers representing a broad cohort of sectors, including social housing, local authority and third sector support. We worked closely with Sarah Frost, Devolution Partnership Manager at DWP, throughout the development and implementation of the webinars, who said,
“Working with Digital Communities Wales on the design of digital capability webinars to benefit citizens pan-Wales was fantastic. From the initial concept through to delivery I had every confidence in the success of the webinars, due to the shared commitment to increasing digital inclusion from private, public, voluntary, community, third sector organisations. From a DWP perspective it’s important we help citizens build the digital skills required to undertake activities online to widen options available to them, as we operate in an increasingly digital world.”
Following on from our webinar series, we produced a recorded version of the Pension Credit webinar and accompanying resource document, so that others may continue to benefit from the information. Our ambition is that organisations take forward the message that the digital skills required to complete online benefit applications are highly transferable. Filling out forms, understanding web browser safety and creating an account is something often required in everyday online activities. By providing opportunities for individuals to learn and seek digital support on a consistent and long-term basis, we can harbour confidence building and independent online activity.