Despite years of digitizing public services, governments have yet to share the advantages of this shift with the general public. In 2020, the NHS launched a campaign in England, placing posters at bus stops that warned benefit claimants of a £100 fine for fraudulently claiming free dental care. This campaign directed individuals to an online questionnaire to manually verify if their specific combination of government benefits qualified them for free dental care—information that the government already possessed.
As of late 2023, updating the Land Registry in England and Wales could take as long as two years. Although digital systems are in place for administrative tasks, many required changes still necessitated the completion of paper forms. In the UK, individuals needing to demonstrate that their child has a disability must carry a worn piece of paper, called an “award letter,” to access facilities for disabled persons. Discussions on social media about which amusement parks and venues accept this letter have emerged as a result.
Recent estimates suggest that nearly three million eligible families are not taking advantage of Council Tax support, while five million households are missing out on approximately £2 billion in assistance for water, energy, and broadband bills. Furthermore, around 1.3 million UK households that qualify for Universal Credit fail to apply, with £7.5 billion going unclaimed each year. Those receiving Universal Credit who wish to access benefits like free school meals are required to print a screenshot of their accounts.
Improved utilization of technology and data could alleviate these issues, but instead, these “administrative burdens” continue to have tangible negative impacts—fragility in the housing market, reduced family incomes, dental problems, and children facing hunger and cold. These matters represent a broader issue rather than isolated incidents.
The Question of Purpose
In the haste to digitize public services, there is rarely time to ask, “Why go through this effort?” If an answer exists, it often revolves around finances—cost savings from automation, minimizing redundancy, and closing down obsolete systems or call centers. Most digitization projects aim simply to maintain the status quo but do it more affordably. This is understandable, as government business cases are often crafted with these financial motivations in mind. However, focusing solely on efficiency can be deceptive.
Even well-designed services can mistakenly prioritize simplification and cost reduction for the government while leaving user experiences unchanged—or possibly deteriorating.
As Richard Pope highlights, government officials are inclined to support initiatives that simplify processes for users, but only when the existing procedures are costly.
This is because what is expensive or complicated for governmental agencies does not necessarily reflect the same for users. Initiatives that ease the burden on the public but incur costs for government—like automating the appeals process or streamlining enrollment—are often ignored, as shown in the bus stop campaign example. Consequently, numerous problems go unaddressed by digital solutions.
Instead of viewing digital tools as a way to achieve short-term savings, the focus should shift towards sharing the benefits of automation with the public. If applied effectively, technology can significantly reduce the burdens on individuals, families, and communities related to various tasks, from purchasing homes to claiming benefits and accessing free childcare. The potential to do this is unprecedented.
Evolving Design Principles
Back in 2011, while developing the inaugural version of Gov.uk at the Government Digital Service under the project name “alphagov,” we had a set of guiding design principles prominently displayed. Some principles, such as “Set clear expectations” and “Design for context by being ‘Consistent, not uniform,’” remain relevant today. However, others, like “Google is the homepage” and “Every visit is a new user,” now seem outdated. These guidelines made sense a dozen years ago for several reasons:
- Web searches had become the primary method for discovering public services.
- Most back-office operations were merely digital adaptations of paper processes.
- Services lacked access to data regarding users’ past interactions.
During that time, engaging with public services was an active and transactional process. Users needed to identify their needs and complete relevant forms, whether on paper or online. The transaction concluded when a license was issued, an account was updated, or correspondence was sent.
To enhance the user experience in 2011—just as we sought to do with Gov.uk—improving web content clarity, implementing a consistent design system, and eliminating unnecessary questions from digital forms were logical steps. This trend wasn’t unique to public services; many private sector services were similarly optimized for web searches and transactional interactions.
The Shift to Passive and Real-Time Interactions
Today, we are witnessing a shift from these active, transactional exchanges toward interactions that are increasingly passive and real-time.
Passive interactions are already prevalent in commercial services; features like email spam filters, streaming service recommendations, and web browser auto-fill functions all exemplify services proactively anticipating user needs.
Real-time interactions have also become commonplace. For example, passengers can observe cars moving on maps in ride-sharing applications, while prices fluctuate based on demand. When shopping online, customers can instantly check product availability, and mobile wallet transactions trigger immediate notifications.
Public services are starting to adopt these real-time, passive interactions. Over eight million Ukrainians have benefited from the eAid service, which allows users to access social security payments without filling out extensive forms, as eligibility is verified automatically using governmental data. In India, updating an address on a user’s Aadhaar identity credential prompts automatic updates to other identification documents. Estonia is developing a “real-time economy” to facilitate financial reporting and invoicing between companies and government agencies, eliminating the necessity for paper receipts and invoices.
The Vision for Reduced Administrative Burden
For the first time, we are on the verge of a systematic reduction of administrative burdens society-wide. If we choose to embrace this transition, it will set the expectation that public services can streamline and eliminate as much hassle as possible.
Public services could and should be working much more effectively for the public. However, achieving this won’t come solely from more design thinking or the application of artificial intelligence. Nor will it be solved by merely “better data sharing,” which is akin to photocopying existing data, or by digitizing services in their current format, form by form and letter by letter.
A genuine investment is required in new types of publicly owned and accountable digital infrastructure, designed for the collective benefit of the public sector and its users. A fresh perspective on public service design is also essential.
Currently, the public interacts with government as consumers rather than as active participants in a democratic society. Government systems place citizens at arm’s length, creating distance and complicating understanding and accountability. Excessive emphasis on minimalist designs often ignores the essence of public services—acknowledging the realities of service use is vital for fostering meaningful change.
Finally, there must be a reevaluation of the types of services created and the scope of government involvement.
The Displacement of Bureaucracy
Instead of liberating us from bureaucratic processes, digital services have merely displaced and fragmented them. Common public service experiences, no matter how mundane, have become reduced to numerous individual interactions. Government has distanced itself, becoming harder to navigate and less accountable when accessed through digital platforms. Paper forms have transformed into web forms, along with countless web pages detailing how to fill them out, leading to delays and frustrations as we wait for emails instead of letters.
Despite the substantial potential technology and design hold for enhancing public services and enriching democracy—an enthusiasm that led me to the civic tech communities of the early 2000s and ultimately to my role at the Government Digital Service—we seem to have lost sight of something significant in the process. It’s time we rediscover that essence.
About the Author
Richard Pope is the author of Platformland: An Anatomy of Next-Generation Public Services, published by LPP. This book discusses the design of public services and the digital infrastructure necessary to support them. Rich was part of the founding team of the UK Government Digital Service and served as the first product manager for Gov.uk, creating many foundational design concepts for the platform and the digital account for Universal Credit. In 2018/19, he was a senior fellow at Harvard, where he researched and lectured on government as a platform.