A/HRC/41/39/Add.1 obstructs access to benefits, and particularly disadvantages women, older people, people who do not speak English and persons with disabilities. 73 61. Overall roll-out of broadband Internet in the United Kingdom may be high, but many poorer and more vulnerable households are effectively offline. 74 According to the Department’s own 2018 survey, only 54 per cent of all claimants were able to apply online independently, without assistance. One third of new UC claims fail in the application process and never reach the payment stage. 75 The Special Rapporteur is unaware of any effort by the Department to estimate the number of people who do not attempt to apply due to digital exclusion. 62. Despite official protests to the contrary, “digital by default” is really much closer to “digital only”. Since UC was announced in 2010, the Department has always emphasized that alternative routes needed to be “kept to a minimum”. According to its own figures, 95 per cent of UC claims are made online. The Department points to the UC Helpline as an alternative route, but long waiting times and poorly trained call centre staff make this a frustrating and inadequate alternative. Jobcentres, many of which have been closed, offer online access, but very little digital assistance is available and official policy is to keep “face-to-face” help to a minimum.76 63. The reality is that digital assistance has been outsourced to public libraries and civil society organizations. While library budgets have been severely cut across the country, they have to deal with an influx of UC claimants. 77 Many claimants rely on organizations and charities that are already inadequately funded and under pressure. As of 2019, the Department will fund Citizens Advice as the sole provider of Assisted Digital Support, with £39 million spread out over several years – which must also cover personal budgeting support. Not only is this a small amount in light of the need, but it diverts funding from public libraries and other organizations which have already set up digital support programmes. 64. “Digital by default” UC is also a major automation project. One example is the Real Time Information (RTI) system, which uses Revenue and Customs data on earnings from employers to automatically calculate monthly benefits. But with automation comes error at scale. Various experts and civil society organizations pointed to problems with the data feed, including incorrect or late information. According to the Department, a team of 50 civil servants work full-time on dealing with the 2 per cent of the millions of monthly transactions that are incorrect. The Special Rapporteur found that claimants sometimes wait weeks to be paid the proper amount, even when they have written proof that the digital information is wrong. 65. Fraud and error detection and prevention is also being automated. The Department has invested in data matching to identify fraud and error.78 It has subsidized “risk-based verification systems”, mostly built by private IT vendors, which flag claimants as being at low, medium or high risk of fraud and error and covertly subject those flagged as high risk to more intense scrutiny. 79 The Department is also developing a “fully automated risk analysis and intelligence system for fraud and error”.80 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 14 See, e.g., written submissions by Citizens Advice Flintshire; Friends, Families and Travellers and National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups; Good Things Foundation; and Trussell Trust. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/UKVisitSubmissions.aspx. Ofcom, “Internet use and attitudes: 2017 Metrics Bulletin”, 3 August 2017. Department for Work and Pensions, Universal Credit Full Service Survey, June 2018. Department for Work and Pensions, Universal Credit: Welfare that Works, p. 38. Lorensbergs, “Netloan public library customer survey results 2017”, February 2018. HM Revenue and Customs and Department for Work and Pensions, “Tackling fraud and error in the benefit and tax credit system”, October 2010. Submission by Big Brother Watch. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Poverty/Pages/UKVisitSubmissions.aspx. Department for Work and Pensions, Rolling Out Universal Credit, report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, National Audit Office, 15 June 2018, p. 61.