Digital Social Security: Towards Disciplinary or Relational Futures?

The welfare state is increasingly digitised, and the new Labour government intends to use technology as a key component of public service improvement. Active exploration of potential digital welfare futures is therefore essential to inform choices in policy and practice.

This paper takes Universal Credit as an exemplar of existing approaches to the digitisation and automation of social security. Universal Credit is data-driven and employs automated decision making to determine eligibility and calculate payments. Staff primarily communicate with claimants through digital channels, including discussions about job-seeking requirements. Digitisation is not simply a tool for improving administrative efficiency, it is also a disciplinary instrument, shaped by underlying policy drivers and assumptions of uncooperative claimants.

In contrast, some public and voluntary sector organisations are turning to relational models, which centre trusted human relationships, and appear more effective at helping people into work than coercive approaches. Unlike Universal Credit, the potential to integrate digital technologies in relational models is so far little explored.

This paper examines the future direction of travel for digitised social security. It reviews the literature on the risks and benefits of existing systems, and relational employment support, and identifies areas of potential development and further research. It finds that Universal Credit in its current form is incompatible with relational principles, and that more research is needed to understand the potential of technology to support relational working.

More than one potential digital future for social security is possible; what emerges will depend on the policy context in which it develops, and the attention given to exploring new models.