"Access to the internet is essential", peers told

Experts spoke at the Lord’s Digital Committee’s digital exclusion hearings that cutting VAT on broadband could help struggling households with the issue of “digital exclusion”.

As the cost-of-living crisis and rising bills continue to ravage the finances of millions of households, experts speaking to peers last week insisted that it was imperative to make broadband more accessible to low-income households.

Experts speaking to the committee defined the term digital exclusion as an interconnected set of problems with the internet, including: No access to the internet, lack of technological literacy to use the internet, and having no device capable of connecting to it.

Rocio Concha Galguera, director of policy and advocacy & chief economist at Which? Spoke on the need for action in order to get more people on benefits onto cheaper broadband deals.

The government has previously called on broadband providers to raise awareness of these cheaper deals.

Concha goes onto to say that cheaper social tariffs are available for benefit claimants but only 3.2% of those  who qualify actually use them while most are not aware they exist.

According to Ofcom, more than 32% of UK households (9.1 million) were having issues paying for their phone, broadband, and streaming bills when the figures were compiled in October 2022, more than double the level of April 2021.

On top of this, Ofcom also found that 17% of households were cutting back on other spending, such as food and clothing, to afford communications services, more than four times the percentage doing so in June 2021.