Question of the FortnightQuestion of the Fortnight
10
THE FACTS
8 – 21 June 2022 • Issue 633- Baroness Altmann wants
a Minister for Older
People to tackle the digital
“discrimination” faced by
the elderly - Ten per cent of people
who have mobile phones
use a model that can’t
download apps - Thirteen councils in England
and Wales have made their
car parks totally cashless,
leaving people without
smartphones unable to pay
People without smartphones are excluded from society, campaigners say
Why do we force the elderly
to always use apps?
W
hen 84-year-old
Chris Paphides
arrived at
Birmingham’s Greek
Cathedral for a friend’s
memorial service, he found
that he could pay for parking
only by using a phone app or
automated payment line. He
couldn’t work out what to do,
but he didn’t want to miss the
service, so he phoned his son
Pete and asked him to explain
to the parking company what
had happened.
But the company didn’t
listen, and his father soon
received a fine. He’ll never
have to pay it though because,
sadly, he has since died.
Getting the fine annulled may
be just a small part of the
paperwork his son now has to
deal with, but it has left an
emotional scar.
He wrote on Twitter (www.
snipca.com/42096) that it
breaks his heart “how difficult
we’ve made it for old people to
go about their daily business”,
and that we “terrorise them
for the crime of not knowing
how to download an app”.
Many Computeractive
readers would agree. We get
plenty of emails from those
frustrated that they’re being
forced to use their phones for
everyday tasks. Some of these
are far more important than
paying for parking, such as
contacting their bank or the
NHS. Companies and
organisations alike now
increasingly expect people to
not just own a smartphone,
but feel comfortable using it.
It’s a problem that concerns
former pensions minister
Baroness Altmann, who as alife peer now campaigns for
the rights of older people. She
was moved by Pete’s tweets,
writing in the Daily Mail that
it is a “small but all-too-real
illustration of the struggles
faced by so many of our
precious older generation in a
digitally obsessed age”.
She added: “The majority of
those left behind by the drive
to digitise even the most vital
services are elderly or disabled.
For assorted reasons theycannot — or do not feel
confident enough — to
embrace digital technology
and, as a result, they find
themselves excluded from
accessing vital services.”
She’s right. Figures released
by the Office for National
Statistics last year showed that
of the three million people
who never use the internet,
more than two million are
over 70. Even more significant
is that 10 per cent of people
who use mobile phones
own a model that’s unable to
download apps (ie, a ‘dumb’
phone – like the Doro 6880
reviewed on page 28 – not
‘smart’).
Altmann says that “a large
section of society is left
feeling at best marginalised,
at worst completely
forgotten”. She argues that
this “discrimination” can
be best tackled by the
Government creating a
Minister for Older People, a
role that then-Prime Minister
David Cameron asked her totake on in 2015. Altmann said
she was “thrilled” by the idea,
but it was rejected by the
Department for Work and
Pensions.
You may think it’s odd for a
computing magazine to
highlight this problem.
Shouldn’t we be championing
how technology can improve
life? Well, we do. Smartphones
are incredible devices, letting
us do things that even 20
years ago would have seemed
unimaginable. We’ll always
recommend the best apps for
them.
But they mustn’t be the
only choice available. We’re
shocked that in England and
Wales, 13 councils have
already made their car parks
totally cashless, leaving people
without smartphones unable
to pay. Altmann calls for
“urgent action to ensure the
needs of those who can’t
participate in this brave new
online world are taken into
consideration”. We back her
completely.Baroness Altmann says many people
are feeling “at best marginalised, at
worst completely forgotten”