Precarious Experiences: Citizens' Frustrations, Anxieties and Burdens of an Online Welfare Benefit System
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2024
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| _version_ | 1866913350410043392 |
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| author | Watson, Colin Parnaby, Adam W Kharrufa, Ahmed |
| author_facet | Watson, Colin Parnaby, Adam W Kharrufa, Ahmed |
| contents | 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. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_08515 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Precarious Experiences: Citizens' Frustrations, Anxieties and Burdens of an Online Welfare Benefit System Watson, Colin Parnaby, Adam W Kharrufa, Ahmed Human-Computer Interaction Computers and Society Social and Information Networks 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. |
| title | Precarious Experiences: Citizens' Frustrations, Anxieties and Burdens of an Online Welfare Benefit System |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction Computers and Society Social and Information Networks |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.08515 |