HUNDREDS of thousands of older people are being deprived of rightful financial support due to digital exclusion, a charity has found.

The study from Age UK, published on Friday, found that people from a lower-income background were disproportionately at risk of losing out due to digital barriers.

Around 2.3 million over-65s do not use the internet at all, with 48 per cent of these being over 75, it reported.

To investigate available options for those unable to apply for housing benefit and council tax reduction online, the charity conducted 220 telephone enquiries across 110 local authorities.

Many were only informed about assistance at council offices or libraries after persistent questioning.

Four callers could not get though to speak to a person at all, while 16 were not offered help from the council or any other way of applying independently. 

Government statistics show up to 310,000 pensioners eligible for the Household Benefit are not receiving it.

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: “Some councils are doing a good job in supporting older people who can’t use online systems to apply for help in other ways ... however in a minority of cases, no offline option was on offer at all.

“What would have happened to a ‘real’ older person who had rung up and asked to apply for housing benefit or council tax reduction in another way in one of these localities?

“It seems to us that they would have been unable to do so, unless they had the support of a family member or friend who was au fait with computers, to help them get through the process online.”