Three steps to ensure you are a social welfare services digital leader.
Demand more from digital for the well-being of citizens
Social welfare is a core responsibility of today’s developed countries. Historically, many governments have spent a significant proportion of their budget allocation on social welfare protection. But the current cost-of-living and social housing crisis, following the disruption caused by Covid 19, has accelerated citizen demand for support. So how can governments meet the rising citizen demand for social welfare services, while simultaneously maintaining budget responsibility?
We believe government ministries and agencies responsible for social welfare services need to take these three actions now to improve wellbeing outcomes for their citizens:
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Reorient social welfare services around citizen segments and specific needs.
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Rethink how to deliver true change and transformation in the delivery of services.
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Realize tangible social and economic benefits for both public servants and citizens!
BearingPoint’s 2023 Global Social Welfare Digital Maturity Study examines the global digital service maturity of social welfare benefits across ten countries (Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, and the UK), four digital dimensions, and six social welfare categories.
High-level summary of survey findings
- Most countries evaluated perform at the mid-level of digital maturity with Singapore being the most digitally maturity globally.
- Digital by Design was the strongest dimension, with all countries optimized for digital applications, countries achieving an average score of 3.9 out of 5 across all categories.
- Proactiveness was the lowest scoring dimension across all categories with an average aggregate score of 3.1 with opportunities identified for websites to include proactive prompts or auto-enrolment functionality.
- Unemployment is the strongest scoring, and Incapacity the lowest of MISSOC Social Protection Categories (Unemployment, Health, Incapacity, Old-Age & Survivors, Family, and Social Assistance).
- Unemployment is the category where digital maturity is greatest, with a score of 81%.
- The category of Incapacity is the least digitally mature countries score with an average of 64% in this category, with lower scores across Estonia, Germany, Ireland and the U.K. and high scores in Singapore, Canada, and Norway.
Overall average digital maturity by country
Singapore, France, New Zealand, and Denmark all scored high in Digital by Design, as they provide fully online applications, as well as real-time progress tracking. Norway’s strong performance is due to digitally optimized communication channels through chatbots routing users’ queries to relevant public servants, as well as responding to common queries.
Overall findings by social welfare categories
Digital maturity is greatest in the unemployment category with a score of 81%. It scored strongly in Digital by Design and Government as a Platform due to the across- the-board presence of online applications and, in the case of Denmark, Ireland and Germany, the provision of real-time progress tracking and full mobile optimization.
While Incapacity category is the least digitally mature. Overall, countries score an average of 64% in this category, with lower scores across Estonia, Germany, Ireland and the U.K. and high scores in Singapore, Canada, and Norway.
