A new report from the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA) warns that up to two million households across the UK are at risk of losing access to essential digital services, including healthcare, welfare and education, simply because they cannot afford the mobile data they need.

The report, Zero Rating: When Data Decides Access, highlights how running out of data can result in missed GP appointments, unfinished benefit claims and disrupted school communications, turning digital access into a fragile lifeline rather than a reliable public service.

As these public services increasingly operate online by default, the report asserts that without action, millions remain on borrowed time as essential services move further online without protections in place to keep access to digital lifelines open to all.

With over one third of respondents surveyed relying primarily on mobile data as their main way of getting online, for these households, access is inherently unstable. Data availability fluctuates and in a digital-by-default system, data affordability directly determines whether healthcare, welfare and education can be accessed when they are needed most.

Those living with data poverty are forced to make daily trade-offs between staying connected and meeting basic needs such as food, heating and transport. Rather than raising concerns or seeking support, many absorb the cost of digital access in silence, rationing data, delaying interactions with services or disengaging altogether.

Losing access can not only have huge physical implications, particularly in times of crisis, but carries a heavy emotional toll with respondents describing anxiety, stress and isolation when lack of data prevents them from getting online for appointments, completing forms or staying in touch with services or support networks.

The report finds that coping strategies often mask the true scale of digital exclusion, with low or irregular use of essential online services misread as low demand rather than constrained access. Responsibility for staying connected has quietly shifted onto individuals, even as essential services move online without safeguards, leaving many reliant on insecure and unreliable public WiFi.

Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, commented: “Once public services move online, access is no longer guaranteed by policy or entitlement alone, but by whether people can afford to stay connected at the moment they need help and that is a risk no essential system should be designed to carry.

The answer is not unlimited free internet, but clear and proportionate action. That means being explicit about which digital public services are truly essential, guaranteeing that these services are always reachable through measures like zero rating, and making sure people know when access is free. It also means recognising that public WiFi is a stopgap, not a solution, and aligning zero rating with wider affordability measures.

Without that clarity and responsibility, access to essential services will continue to fail simply because data affordability is treated as someone else’s problem.”

Recommended reading

• AI May Displace 3M Jobs, But Only Modest Job Losses Expected
• One in Six UK Employers Plan AI Layoffs in 2026
• IMF: AI Will Worsen Inequality and Affect 40% of Jobs

Essential services are not being treated as essential when delivered digitally, pointing to zero rating the digital equivalent of freephone numbers which was successfully used during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep NHS and key public service websites accessible, but has never been embedded as a permanent protection for essential digital services.

The report sets out the actions needed to protect access to essential digital services as more public systems move online. It identifies the need to clearly define which digital public services are essential, to guarantee that these services remain free to access through measures such as zero rating, and to embed this protection as a permanent feature of digital public infrastructure rather than a temporary response to crisis.

It highlights the importance of clear public communication so people know when access is free, recognises public WiFi as a stopgap rather than a solution, and points to the need for alignment with wider affordability measures that reflect how data poverty fluctuates over time.

Without this clarity, investment and accountability, the report concludes that digital-by-default public services will continue to exclude people not because support is unavailable, but because staying connected remains unaffordable.