In this second working paper, we continue to examine how digital food assistance practices interact with political and economic processes, but we focus on the experience of marginalised populations on the receiving end of digitalised food assistance and welfare. We conducted fieldwork in three food-insecure parts of England: Birmingham in the West Midlands, Gateshead and Hartlepool in the North East, and Newham and Barnet in London. We argue that the poor and politically marginalised face exclusion from digitalised welfare and food assistance because they are unable to pay for digital access and because of the way the system has been designed. Instead, the government aims to benefit by reducing the cost of the welfare bill, and business benefits by providing food and financial and data management services. As such, digitalisation feeds into existing inequalities and food insecurity. Charitable food and community projects have become entrenched as part of the welfare system, providing both food and digital support, absolving government from this responsibility and leading to a fragmented and unaccountable system.

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