Members of the public are to be paid £550 each to help shape the Government’s controversial digital ID scheme, The i Paper can reveal.
The Government announced a People’s Panel earlier this month as part of its consultation on the proposed national digital identity system, with up to 120 citizens to be selected at random to take part.
The i Paper can reveal that participants will attend seven workshops totalling 33 hours — equivalent to around £16.67 an hour — with the full payment made to those who complete all sessions.
Travel and accommodation will also be covered, with the panel gathering in Birmingham over two weekends, alongside online sessions planned for May and June.
The entire engagement process will cost the taxpayer approximately £830,000, drawn from a pre-existing contract with polling firm Ipsos UK signed in March 2024.
Around £630,000 has been allocated for the People’s Panel itself, with just under £200,000 for a separate strand of outreach focusing on marginalised groups.
Ministers launched the consultation against a backdrop of significant public opposition to the scheme.
When plans were first announced last September, digital right-to-work checks were set to be mandatory for all new hires — meaning every employer would be required to use the system to verify that workers were legally entitled to work in the UK.
The proposal triggered an immediate backlash. A petition against the plans gathered nearly three million signatures — the fourth largest in UK parliamentary history — and drew criticism from across Parliament.
The Government reversed course in January, dropping the compulsory element for workers, though the broader digital ID project has continued to advance.
As well as the paid panel, the Government has said it will conduct in-depth interviews and discussions with groups considered to be digitally excluded or underrepresented — including people over 75, those from very low-income households, people experiencing homelessness or living in temporary accommodation, domestic abuse survivors and care leavers.
Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said that digital ID was “going to be about making public services work for ordinary people”, and that hearing from the public about “where their frustrations lie when engaging with the state is going to be absolutely key to getting this right”.
He said: “Public trust in the state has been declining for years, whoever has been in power — and people too often feel shut out of decisions.
“This consultation is going above and beyond to bring people in — to all the big debates, and the knotty trade-offs too. We’re deliberately going out to seek the views of ordinary people from all walks of life and from right across the country — so it’s not just the loudest or most powerful voices who are being heard.”
Despite the climbdown, digital right-to-work checks will still become compulsory by 2029 — meaning employers will be required to verify documents through a digital system rather than manually.
Workers will not, however, be required to use the new Government-built digital ID to pass them, with a passport, eVisa or other accepted documents remaining valid.
Broader roll-out of the digital ID beyond employment — covering areas such as benefits, banking and age verification — is not expected until the 2030s at the earliest.
The Government has confirmed there will be no legal obligation to hold or present a digital ID, and that physical documents such as passports and driving licences will remain valid alternatives once the system is in place.
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