IT literacy begins at home

I have recently been attempting to fill in an application form to remortgage my flat. This has proved difficult due to some of the required information and stipulations.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to find out the name and type of concrete used in my building, as requested, or the name of the builders involved, considering that it is decades old. Nor am I sure how much bearing this information could have on my application. Likewise, requesting details of my three previous addresses seems excessive.

Then there are the various stipulations. These include insisting on seeing my passport or driving licence, along with a utility or council tax bill less than two months old.

I was also disappointed to discover the general attitude among mortgage lenders to all things online. Among the ever-growing list of documents required to support my application were my previous three months' bank statements. However, I was advised: "We appreciate that an ever-increasing number of people use internet banking facilities but regret that a bank statement downloaded from the internet may not be acceptable to some lenders." Instead I was encouraged to obtain hard copies showing branch address, account number and holder details.

This is a very sad state of affairs when you consider that the financial services industry is widely held to be one of the more forward-thinking sectors of the UK economy.

Such attitudes to the internet show why schemes like the government's Home Computing Initiative (HCI) are badly needed. This scheme is to boost IT literacy across the UK by offering tax breaks to increase the number of people who have access to a computer at home.

The scheme encourages organisations to provide computers to staff under a three-year lease scheme, during which time those staff pay a monthly pre-tax fee from their wage packet.

The government is currently making a renewed effort to promote the HCI scheme - which was originally introduced in 1999 - in an attempt to encourage greater take-up. The scheme did not attract many firms originally, but looks as if it could be more successful this time. Industry heavyweights such as Intel, BT and Microsoft are now backing the initiative. And the Royal Mail has released details of its own HCI scheme - launched last year - which has already been taken up by over 10,000 employees.

This is a great opportunity for employers to offer their staff a job perk that is both desirable and affordable - according to the Royal Mail, its scheme costs each participant from as little as £4.25 a week over three years. And it should generate wide-ranging benefits, from happier staff to better IT literacy.

But for every scheme promoting the world of computers, there is an organisation like the aforementioned mortgage provider hindering the adoption of online services.

This situation shows the hurdles that IT managers face on a daily basis. While they push for adoption of more advanced technologies to improve business operations, some firms are still frightened to use electronic documents for certain types of business.

Hopefully, such fears will be washed away by schemes like HCI - with all the nationwide support it's generating - and also by the continued efforts of IT departments to educate users and to promote network security.