Introduction

In this chapter, the implications for social welfare of e-government and the criticisms levelled at UK e-government policy will be addressed.

In 2000, the editor of an Internet magazine set out a wish list of ‘top-ten things I want to be able to do online’, including:

• • check the current waiting time at the local Accident & Emergency (A&E) department;

• • be alerted to a webcast when my interests are being debated in parliament;

• • see how many people have been prosecuted for driving while using a mobile phone;

• • be told my passport’s about to run out in time for me to be able to do something about it;

• • get a maths A-level;

• • apply for housing benefit;

• • find my national insurance number;

• • complain to my MP and get a reply the same day;

• • see whether more police or traffic wardens patrol my street;

• • vote (Kreisky, 2000, p xxiv).

Depending exactly on where he now lives in the UK, this editor would find only four out of 10 of these applications possible in 2003.

This chapter will examine:

• • Who is e-government for – the government to save costs or citizens for greater convenience and accessibility?

• • What are the obstacles to e-government, including online transactions in social welfare services?

• • What are the implications for social welfare professionals’ practice and agencies’ service provision?

E-government in the UK

The vision

E-government can be defined as “the provision and organisation of public services through new electronic channels” (Curthoys and Crabtree, 2003, p 9).

From the mid- to late 1990s, the consensus among ICT commentators and politicians was that societal trends would ensure that access to Internet technologies was going to increase exponentially, via:

• • increasing levels of PC home ownership and rising computer literacy within the household;

• • development of more user-friendly, multimedia technology, including interactive digital TV;

• • new generations being more at ease with ICT;

• • Internet access becoming increasingly available in the public and voluntary sectors, as well as in the high street;

• • more accessible gateways to government information, starting to be configured around ‘life episodes’ (like health, employment) rather than bureaucratic silos that reflect government departments (Prime Minister and Minister for the Cabinet Office, 1999).