It is only right and proper that those who have served their country are able to access the benefits and services which they so clearly deserve, which we all pay taxes to provide for them.
Grabbing headlines with the launch of ‘digital Veteran ID Cards’ so soon after Mr Starmer’s near-universally derided announcement of the digital ID card scheme may have made the Government seem a bit opportunistic, but these new ‘digital cards’ do also raise a few questions…
To be clear, the HM Forces Veteran Card has nothing to do with the proposed National Digital Identity Programme, except that the digital version of the card is a credential that can be stored in the government’s Black App*. It is unclear whether the new credential will follow the Government’s policy for other credentials and require the Black App because they will not allow it to be stored in your phone’s wallet of choice – it might not work like wallets you’re used to.
There has long been cross-party consensus around solving a very real problem; that those who have served in the military have limited ways to prove they have done so, and that some providing them with essential benefits and services have no way of checking. If a veteran found themself homeless and out on the street, even those who were trying to help them found no-one who would answer the phone and help.
Whether a homeless veteran who doesn’t have a phone – or a veteran who simply prefers not to use one – will be able to use their physical Veteran ID card to access all they are entitled to will be a test of exactly how “inclusive” the Government intends to be as it imposes a universal digital ID scheme grounded in Home Office culture and ‘Blair Thought’.
This same contrarian, paradoxical thinking would reduce every person in the country to the same lowest common denominator, all in the name of “inclusion”. British citizens being treated identically to migrants, making everyone’s rights and freedoms – as basic as earning a living, or renting or buying a place to live – contingent upon a Home Office policy of deliberate exclusion; the Hostile Environment foisted on us all, fuelled by a generation of fear and loathing.
Ensuring there is a properly staffed 24/7 phone number that support workers can call (and printing that number on the HM Forces Veteran Card) would be far more flexible than enrolling tens of thousands into the digital ID scheme that works only how Government insists, in the name of “convenience” and “efficiency” that government getting into your life rarely delivers. Veterans know this better than most.
Veterans served their country; they served us all. Surely they deserve better than this?
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*The Government’s name and branding will vary over time as the implementation of ‘digital ID cards’ destroys each fresh brand, but eventually you will use your GOV.UK Login to access your GOV.UK Account – either online or via the GOV.UK App, which will also function as your GOV.UK Wallet. And then by default, the State (or your local petty bureaucrat) will expect you to have the Black App on your phone, i.e. in order to live your life, they will expect you to have their code running on your device.
For more on the history of this, see: https://medconfidential.org/2021/the-black-app/