Labour’s Digital ID card scheme might go far past preliminary proposals – making it simpler to assert advantages and even telling you when to place your bins out

Keir Starmer’s plans for digital ID cards could go far beyond the original proposals – even making it easier to claim benefits and notifying people when to put their bins out.

Labour on Tuesday unveiled its prototype digital ID system as it laid out further details on what the scheme could look like in its push to create ‘Government by app’.

The Prime Minister first sold the scheme as a way to crack down on illegal migration – but now Labour has revealed its vision for a one-stop shop that could become the ‘front door’ for public services.

Documents published by the Cabinet Office state that the Government will retain the right to revoke somebody’s digital ID – and could even be handed powers to take enforcement action if people fail to keep their details up to date.

The digital ID will first be used to carry out digital right-to-work checks, but ministers envision this expanding to include things like childcare, tax, national insurance and even registering a marriage.

Under Labour’s plans the public will be able to tell the app which council area they live in – with people then receiving alerts telling them when their rubbish collection is due.

The app could even flag what benefits people might be entitled to based on their personal details, making it easier to claim Universal Credit, child benefits and housing support.

The consultation document states that ‘the digital ID will allow government to more easily verify an individual’s eligibility for benefits’.

Darren Jones said he hopes digital ID will ‘become the front door to how you access public services’ as he gave a demonstration of a prototype app at a Downing Street press conference on Tuesday.

Additions like childcare, pension statements and HMRC data are a ‘prize for the next parliament’, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister added.

The documents state that digital IDs will ‘reduce existing, systemic barriers to accessing public services’, ensuring people can ‘access the services to which they are entitled’.

And Labour pointed to a case study from Estonia, where parents ‘experience a seamless, digital-first system for accessing financial support’ using their digital identity when their child is born.

‘Using their digital identity, parents register the birth online within minutes. Immediately afterward, a tailored benefits offer appears in their government account. Parents simply review and accept the offer,’ it adds.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said that Labour sold its digital ID plans as a ‘simple way to access services’, but warned they are ‘already expanding far beyond its original reach’.

‘The last thing this country needs is Digital ID encouraging more people onto the bourgeoning list of welfare claimants,’ she told the Mail. ‘Instead the Government should get getting a grip of welfare.’

Reform UK said digital ID cards ‘will make no difference to illegal immigration but it will instead be used to control and penalise the rest of us’, with a spokesman adding: ‘The state should never have this much power.’

The documents reveal that the Government will have powers to cancel someone’s digital ID in ‘limited circumstances’ – for instance, if they suspect the IDs are being used for fraud.

And ministers will be able to retain someone’s data even if they decide to delete their digital ID – with the document suggesting the Government will retain data ‘as long as needed’.

Meanwhile Labour is exploring whether people should be ‘legally required’ to inform the government of any changes to personal information held in their digital ID and ‘what an appropriate form of enforcement’ could be if they fail to do so.

However ministers have stressed that digital IDs will not be mandatory, and when the legislation is brought before parliament ‘it will say this on the face of the Bill’. 

The Government on Tuesday launched an eight-week consultation on plans to launch a digital ID as it attempts to curry favour for its controversial scheme.

And in a last-ditch bid to turn public opinion in favour of the policy, Labour has announced it will set up a ‘people’s panel’ on digital ID to find ‘ways to move forward’.

The panel will be formed of up to 120 randomly selected people from across the country in an attempt to secure public support for the policy after months of criticism.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer was forced to water down the mandatory element of proposals for right-to-work checks earlier this year.

Since then ministers have since sought to portray digital ID as a way of simplifying the public’s interactions with government services.

Mr Jones said that public services need to ‘catch up’ with those offered by the private sector, such as supermarkets, shops and online banking.

He said: ‘People too often dread their interactions with public services. Endless telephone calls, complicated printed forms and having to tell your story multiple times to different parts of Government.

‘I want to change that and make public services work for you. The new digital ID will make that possible, allowing you to log on and prove who you are to access public services more quickly, easily and securely.’

The PM’s Chief Secretary suggested the system could lead to future savings of ‘tens of billions of pounds’, but was unable to say how much the rollout would cost.

The digital ID cards will include a person’s full name, date of birth, nationality and a photograph.

They will be available to everyone over the age of 16, but as part of the consultation the public will be asked what age they believe people should be able to get a digital ID, including possibly reducing this to 13 or even newborns.

Tory shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood told the Commons on Tuesday that ‘the public know snake oil when they’re offered it’.

He added: ‘After one of the Government’s many U-turns, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister now assures us that this digital ID will not become compulsory. Nothing is ever compulsory until it suddenly is. We know how this story goes.

‘At first, it is voluntary, then it becomes strongly encouraged. Then, you discover you need it to open a bank account and see your GP.

‘Before long, your phone battery dies while you are in the queue at Costa, and you are essentially a non-person: “Sorry, sir, no flat white for you. Computer says you no longer exist.”’

The consultation period is due to end in June and ministers then plan to bring legislation before MPS, with the digital ID app expected to be running by the end of this parliament.

Mr Jones said: ‘We’ll introduce a Bill later this year, but I expect to build in a mechanism that means that Government and any future government will have to go back to Parliament for a check and balance, and approval for each service that comes onto the app in the future.’