And only 5% of internet users say they regularly use government websites to access public services.
The research - by public sector IT consultants Hedra - will come as a wake-up call to the government, which is currently digesting the results of a public consultation on e-democracy.
Thus far £1bn has been allocated to get all public services which can be transacted electronically online by 2005. A further £5bn is earmarked for the long-term future of e-participation.
However, the government's plans for e-government have been dogged by teething problems and technical breakdowns, such as the privacy breakdown on the inland revenue's online tax returns form.
Conversely, the popularity of the 1901 census, when put online by the public records office, so overwhelmed the capacity of the server that it crashed for more than a week.
This week's report, which sampled 600 internet users, is most downbeat about online uptake among Britain's elderly and socially deprived groups. Not a single respondent over 65 or from social groups D and E told researchers they regularly used the internet to access government services.
The report calls for a twin impetus of better desinged websites and financial benefits - such as reduced council tax bills - for paying online.
Currently more than 800 central and local authority public bodies run around 3,000 websites, providing information about their roles and responsibilities.
Hedra chairman Stuart James said: "The government needs to look carefully at ways of driving more traffic to its sites, such as discounts on taxes, like those already available to those who pay council tax by direct debit."
Quelle: Guardian
