Transforming social security benefits administration for the twenty-first century: Towards one-stop services and the client group principle?

The creation of the new Social Security Benefits Agency in 1991 coincided with the final installation in local offices of the first Operational Strategy computer systems, which automated large parts of social security benefits administration. Since then the agency has refocused its strategic thinking towards a ten-year development programme which is centred around plans for 'one-stop' benefits delivery. The article shows why this programme is dependent on 'informatization'-the generation from, and application to, social security administration of new kinds of information, made possible by information and communications technologies (ICTs). It assesses the feasibility and implications of informatizing benefits administration and the likely effects of continuing pressures to reduce administrative costs. It argues that, whilst the agency will become more customer focused, the practical outcomes are likely to be two-edged for claimants. At a policy level, informatization will reinforce political pressures to rationalize and target the benefits system, especially if information-management problems are controlled by a shift to the client group principle.