Implications of Digitalised Welfare Services from a Vulnerable Citizensʼ Perspective

Abstract

Public welfare services and their reliable distribution to those in need of them are an important cornerstone of the Nordic welfare states. With the ‘digital-firstʼ paradigm, digital self-services have become the default channel in Norway also for welfare services. However, especially vulnerable citizens struggle to use these digital self-services, thus making it difficult for them to receive the welfare benefits they are dependent on. Instead, vulnerable citizens often turn to the local offices of public organisations to get help. We conducted 19 interviews and 11 observations with citizens coming to a local office of the Norwegian Welfare and Labour Administration (NAV) to understand vulnerable citizensʼ challenges with digital self-services as well as the way these challenges are attended to at the NAV office. We find that citizens struggle, amongst other things, with complex application procedures, language problems, executive functioning, and the anonymity of self-services. At the same time – while citizens often do get the required help at the NAV office – not all the challenges are solved, and new challenges arise, making vulnerable citizens prone to even more severe vulnerability.

Keywords

• Digital self-services
• digitalisation
• welfare services
• welfare state
• vulnerable citizens