BT has commissioned independent research to try to establish the social
value of digital inclusion activities in the UK. Find it here.
The value of being online to a new user is £1,064 per annum. This comes from having more confidence, making financial savings online, new job seeking skills and a reduction in social isolation. Other figures for more experienced users are also given.
The Keep me Posted campaign have carried out research with the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) into the additional costs of being offline, which shows that people who are not online pay £440 more per year. Read more here.
• Households who do not use the internet pay an average of £440 more a year for their goods and services, equivalent to 4.4 per cent of their average household income
• This equates to 5.4 per cent of the average household income for older people aged 65 plus and the most vulnerable people in society
• Households that cannot take advantage of lower energy and telecoms tariffs for switching to online-only services miss out on a potential annual saving of £139
• 7 million people in the UK have never used the internet, with the vast majority (72 per cent) being the poorest 10 per cent in society
• Almost half (48 per cent) of those 65 years of age and over have never used the internet
With evidence from five EU countries (including the UK), this paper examines whether there is a digital divide in the use of the internet in general and for specific purposes (leisure, improving human capital and obtaining goods and services).
The main finding is that, for those who have access to the Internet, the income-based digital divide in internet use has been reversed in the sense that low-income internet users spend more time on the internet than high-income users. This relationship is particularly strong for time spent on leisure online. In addition, the report finds that employment status does not change the effect of income on internet use and discusses several possible explanations for this result.
Read more here.