Veterans Trial Digital ID Card

According to this BBC article, about 300,000 former members of Britain’s forces can now download a digital version of their veteran card. Although it is not a formal trial of the compulsory digital ID, which the government has pledged to introduce by 2029, it will help to demonstrate how the technology will work.

One of the perceived benefits of ID cards is preventing people who are not entitled to work in the UK from entering paid employment. The present situation, in which migrants who are applying for asylum are not allowed to work, but instead are supported by the state until their application is determined, provides an interesting contrast to the situation in earlier centuries when the focus was on migrants who were unable to support themselves and their families (see the previous article).