Consumers: Paper Billing

Baroness Maddock Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Maddock (LD)]

My Lords, in this short debate, I am delighted to follow the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, and have great pleasure in congratulating him on his excellent maiden speech. It was original, amusing and very informative. For those of us taking part in this debate, it is valuable to hear from someone who has such a wide experience of the law, and therefore has an understanding of how citizens deal with authorities and how they try to deal with the bureaucracy that goes with them. I did a little research, as we are required to do when new Members come in. I understand that the noble and learned Lord is very keen on cricket. Indeed, his maiden speech proved that to be the case, so perhaps I may commiserate with him over the rather sad events of the weekend for the English cricket team.

I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Oppenheim-Barnes for introducing tonight’s debate about the difficulties facing consumers who cannot get paper billing without penalties. How you view this matter will probably depend on one or more of the following factors: how old you are, as we heard very clearly in our maiden speech this evening; how big or small a player you are in today’s complicated society; how well off you are; and where you live.

Beginning with the generational issue, I am 68 and I can use modern technology but I find it difficult to completely trust it, if I am honest. I like important things to be on paper. I understand that most self-employed people find it easier to collate pieces of paper for their tax return; that is certainly the case for me. I am also much quicker on paper—I have my notes for this speech on paper because of that. I may not be entirely rational about this but I have a terrible fear of having my identity stolen. I think it was listening to some programmes on the radio about it that set this off. It is mainly because I cannot really imagine how I would sort out such a situation, given the busy life that I lead here. Having listened to the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, I suppose that I really am a bit of a Luddite.

My mother, too, is 94 and she has been diagnosed with dementia. There is absolutely no way that she could lead her life online. We have to remember that this will always be the case for some of us. We are living longer and there will be more people who are unable to remember passwords and so on, which have already been mentioned this evening. I am sure that my grandchildren will not feel the same way as I do and I know that my daughters are quite happy to lead their lives online. But between myself and my mother there is a wide spectrum of others who cannot or do not want to live theirs online. I understand that there are something like 7 million adults—they are largely elderly but include vulnerable and disabled adults—who cannot access the internet. Many people also live in rural areas which still have no internet access, although that is getting better.

Turning to the size issue, Judith Donovan, who is the chair of the Keep Me Posted campaign has said,

“At present the public appetite for paper bills does not correlate with the preference”

of large organisations, which is quite true. The noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, talked a lot about BT and Ofcom. Within the communications sector, two in 10 companies give customers the choice of a bill format when signing up. I understand that in three-quarters of the cases, customers are charged for paper bills. There are issues about this. BT charges me £5 because I want to pay by cheque and post—I am the Luddite. However, I have done slightly better with O2, with which I have changed my arrangements and got a new phone. They said, “Of course, you realise that under this new arrangement you are going to have to have the bill on your phone”. However, somehow they forgot and I am still getting a paper bill, so I am doing all right out of that.

There has been much discussion in recent months about the big six energy companies, which was touched on this evening. I choose to pay by cheque and post; I pay more for it and pay more than I need to. But those who are less well off and cannot access the internet have no choice; they have to pay more for their fuel. They are often living in some of the least energy-efficient homes and on low incomes. They are a group that some of us in this House campaign on: the fuel poor. Yes, being paperless is cheaper and more profitable for the companies. It is more environmentally friendly. But is it fair to make the most disadvantaged in society pay a premium for the services and goods that they require?

Despite our living in an era when everyone seems to have a smartphone or an iPad, one-third of UK households do not have a personal computer, 20% of disabled people are not online and 53% of those who say that they never use a computer are disabled. Of course, in my age group eight out of 10 of those aged 65 or over want to keep their paper statements. This rises to nine out of 10 in the over-80s. As has been touched on, in another 20 or 30 years the situation may be slightly different, but for now I hope that the Minister will take on board the important and pressing issues raised by everyone in this debate. I hope that he can give us rather more comfort than he did when answering a Question on this very issue which was put to him by the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, in this House last month.