On October 28, Eurofound published a study on the digitalization of social protection in the European Union and Norway, to which IR Share contributed as the national correspondent for France. While the EU’s “Digital Decade” program sets the goal of digitalizing all essential public services by 2030, this research assesses the current state of transformation, both in terms of benefit application procedures (front office) and administrative handling (back office).
Fast-paced digitalization of social protection services
According to the study, the digitalization of monetary social benefits* is progressing rapidly in the EU. In more than ten Member States and in Norway, it is now possible to apply online for all of these benefits. These changes can simplify procedures by making it easier to apply outside of office hours and in areas without service counters, reducing stigma, and increasing responsiveness. They also tend to reduce administrative costs.
Beyond paperless forms, other technologies are being developed, such as proactive applications (e.g., automatic pre-filling of applications for housing assistance, RSA, and activity bonuses in France as part of solidarity-at-source projects), complete automation of certain benefits in the EU (e.g., family allowances), and the use of AI (e.g., chatbots, use for processing applications, etc.).
Digitalization: a means to improve social protection, not an end
However, digitalization does not guarantee access to rights. The study highlights the risks of digital exclusion, which particularly affects people who are not comfortable with digital tools or those whose career paths are atypical and therefore poorly accounted for by automated systems.
The authors therefore call for inclusion audits to be carried out, but above all for access to non-digital services and assistance to be preserved, and for digital tools to be co-developed with all stakeholders. In addition, the risks associated with cybersecurity, the reliability of algorithms, and the transparency of decisions require constant vigilance.
The digitalization of social protection is not an end in itself, but a means of improving services: the authors stress that it is essential that social protection priorities and the diversity of users’ situations and needs determine the digitization process, and not the other way around.
*Unemployment, sickness, maternity/paternity, family allowances, work accident and occupational disease, disability, old age, housing, minimum income.
