An ‘interface first’ bureaucracy
Interface design, universal credit and the digital welfare state
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6452099 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jed Meers (0000-0001-7993-3062, York Law School University of York York UK, corresponding author), Sharon Halliday (0000-0001-5107-6783, Strathcylde Law School University of Strathclyde Glasgow UK), Joe Tomlinson (0000-0002-4512-7799, York Law School University of York York UK) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 119-134 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Policy and Administration (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/spol.13053 |
| OpenAlex | W4400217966 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 19 |
The front‐line of the welfare state is increasingly not a letter, phone call or face‐to‐face visit, but an online user‐interface. This ‘interface first’ bureaucracy is a fundamental reshaping of social security administration, but the design and operation of these interfaces is poorly understood. Drawing on interview data from senior civil servants, welfare benefits advisors and claimants on the UK's flagship Universal Credit working‐age benefit, this paper is a detailed analysis of the role played by interfaces in the modern welfare state. Providing examples from across the Universal Credit system, it sets out a five‐fold typology of user‐interface design elements in the social security context: (i) structuring data input, (ii) interaction architecture, (iii) operative controls, (iv) prompting and priming, and (v) integrations. The paper concludes by considering the implications of an ‘interface first’ welfare bureaucracy for future research
Bureaucracy · Computer security · Context (archaeology · Interface (matter · Operating system · Political science · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law
The Digital Welfare State
Self-defeating targeting
Administrative burden as a constraint on freedom in the modern welfare state
Challenges for individual assessment in digitalised welfare administration
Navigating Digital Welfare
Devolving digitalisation
Digital first Universal Credit and street-level discretion within screen-level implementation
An ‘interface first’ welfare state
Reducing Universal Credit for rent costs
Digital conditionality
Citizens putting in the work
Introduction to the Special Issue on Activation and the Digital Welfare State
Administrative burdens, behavioural insights and economic dignity
When benefit eligibility and patient-led care intersect. Living in the UK with chronic illness
Universal Credit and Automated Decision Making
Universal Credit, deductions and ‘sexually transmitted’ debt
The Form of Forms
Smooth Operators, Predictable Glitches
What is in a form? Examining the complexity of application forms and administrative burden
Emerging modes of digitalisation in the delivery of welfare‐to‐work
Digital by default? A qualitative study of exclusion in digitalised welfare
Talk or type? The effect of digital interfaces on citizens' satisfaction with standardized public services
Discrimination at the Interface
Digital exclusion and distance in the British welfare system
A General Inductive Approach for Analyzing Qualitative Evaluation Data
Can Robots Understand Welfare? Exploring Machine Bureaucracies in Welfare-to-Work
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |