Keir Starmer has announced that the Government will push ahead with a digital identity scheme. He says everyone will need a digital id if they wish to be employed.
It does not worry me as I have multiple forms of digital identity already including some held by government bodies.
The oddity is that everyone who is employed already needs a National Insurance number so that tax can be collected so in theory you can’t get a job without one. But in practice this is not enforced or it is trivial to obtain an NI number if you don’t already have one. So what will change in future?
Without enforcement no system will stop illegal immigration.
As someone who is long retired I presumably won’t legally be required to obtain a digital ID. But this is a very academic issue because I already have an HMRC identity for tax purposes. Hopefully I will just be able to convert this to the new system.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )