Recommendation 88

Furthermore, once a claimant does manage to access a device suitable for navigating the Universal Credit system Scotland’s geography and rurality present further digital access issues. Nina Ballantyne of Citizens Advice Scotland highlighted that rural areas in Scotland make up ‘about 48% of the entire land mass. Only 40% has good 4G coverage, and something like one in 25 premises in Scotland cannot access a decent fixed broadband connection’.218 Polly Jones from The Trussell Trust agreed commenting that people who visit their food banks raise this as an issue and are ‘seeking more support’219 with it.