2024/05/14 by Colin Watson, Watson, Colin, Adam W Parnaby +3
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Computers and Society (cs.CY) #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Employment and Welfare Studies #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC) #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2405.08515
openalex publication_date 2024/05/14 · openalex created_date 2024/05/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
There is a significant overlap between people who are supported by income-related social welfare benefits, often in precarious situations, and those who experience greater digital exclusion. We report on a study of claimants using the UK's Universal Credit online welfare benefit system designed as, and still, "digital by default". Through data collection involving remote interviews (n=11) and online surveys (n=66), we expose claimants' own lived experiences interacting with this system. The claimants explain how digital channels can contribute to an imbalance of power and agency, at a time when their own circumstances mean they have reduced abilities, resources and capacities, and where design choices can adversely affect people's utility to leverage help from their own wider socio-technical ecosystems. We contribute eight recommendations from these accounts to inform the future design and development of digital welfare benefit systems for this population, to reduce digital barriers and harms.