Bringing together social security institutions from across Europe, the IEN Technical Seminar “Social security and human rights − Ensuring access and combatting the non⁠-⁠take-up of social benefits” examined barriers to social security access and reflected on best practices in addressing the non-take-up of benefits. Based on the foundation of social security as a human right, the discussions focussed on innovations from social security institutions and international organizations in the following areas: transformation and automation of processes, customer-centred service delivery and digital inclusion, as well as communication and awareness-raising with insight into service provision for populations with special needs.

Human rights, social rights and social security

The seminar set the stage with international human rights frameworks establishing the right to social security, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the ILO (International Labour Organization) Social Security Convention No. 102 (UN, 1948 and 1966; ILO, 1952; Stern Plaza, 2023). Within the scope of the right to social security, States have an obligation to ensure availability, accessibility, adequacy, acceptability, and quality. Challenges that arise between the normative and practice include, but are not limited to, insufficient allocation of sustainable public funding, insufficient availability and accessibility, overly fragmented systems, inadequate benefit levels, lack of regulation, discrimination and stigma, and digital exclusion (Kim, 2023; Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, 2022).

Since 2017 and 2019 respectively, the European Pillar of Social Rights and the European Union (EU) Council Recommendation on Access to Social Protection have guided social security extension in the region, addressing four dimensions: formal coverage, effective coverage, adequacy, and transparency (European Commision, 2017; Council of the European Union, 2019). However, despite major efforts in the 27 EU Member States, self-employed workers in particular, still have insufficient access to social protection. Therefore, the new EU Council Recommendation on Access to Minimum Income, adopted in 2023, recommends Member States facilitate access through application simplification and digitalization, ensure access to information on rights, outreach to those with insufficient resources, actively combat stigmatization and regularly assess take-up (European Commission, 2023; Aujean, 2023).

Making human rights a reality – Combatting the non‑take‑up of benefits

Non-take-up is a particular challenge with minimum income benefits. In Europe, the non-take-up of the minimum income benefit ranges from twenty-nine to fifty-seven per cent. In France, for example, there is one-third of non-take-up of the Active Solidarity Income (Revenu de solidarité active – RSA), and 20 per cent of households are in a permanent situation of non-take-up (Rode, 2023). As seen in the non-take-up of social protection rights report by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the biggest barrier to benefit take-up in Europe is the application procedure, followed by a lack of information on the application procedure and the benefits themselves (Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, 2022). The report indicates that poor digital skills are a concern for the non-take-up of benefits in the region. In Greece, 46.9 per cent of older adults have no experience of using a computer. In France, 53.8 per cent of survey respondents reported having difficulties in completing administrative processes online. The United Kingdom replaced six different programmes in 2010 with a single one, Universal Credit, initially streamlining the application process for both applicants and administration. However, the system’s “digital by default” functioning resulted to be a major barrier to benefit take-up: 25 per cent of people were unable to make a claim online because of difficulties using or accessing a computer. The report thus concludes with the following recommendations: make information accessible, simplify application procedures while preserving physical access to applications, and involve people living in poverty in service design (Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, 2022; De Schutter, 2023).

Despite the existing challenges, country experiences show the potential of improving benefit take‑up through process transformation and automation as well as customer-centric service design.

Process transformation and automation

When the application for the In-Work Benefit in Malta became automated, using employment incomes from income tax returns and integrating them with household information, benefit take-up almost quadrupled from 6,000 to 23,000 beneficiaries. Eliminating the need for individual applications, the automation of the benefit enabled efficient benefit delivery to previously uncovered, entitled households (Musù, 2023).

The National Family Allowances Fund (Caisse nationale des allocations familiales – CNAF) in France is also automating benefit delivery. With one national fund, 101 local agencies, 12 family benefits, three housing benefits, and four social inclusion benefits, automation combats the non‑take‑up of benefits and simplifies the institutional workload by streamlining the application. More specifically, by making use of data and pre-filling the declaration of means, means testing that assesses benefit eligibility is harmonized. Currently underway for housing benefits, the project seeks to expand at-the-source solidarity (solidarité à la source) to other benefits and, with its comprehensive approach, to become a simplification mechanism both for beneficiaries and for social security institutions (Corbobesse, 2023).

An important point of reflection that emerged during the event was the dependence of technological and administrative solutions on the institutional and environmental constraints -whether legal, cultural, etc- that the organization that implements the social security policy faces. For instance, legal or institutional restrictions may limit the granting a benefit without prior application. These restrictions, on the one hand, highlight limitations in replicating good practices from one institution to another and, on the other hand, show that institutional and legal changes can enable advances through good practices in the implementation of social security policy.

Customer-centric services and digital inclusion

In an increasing number of countries, the implementation of customer-centric solutions (ISSA, 2023), together with digital inclusion initiatives, is enabling access through a better user experience (ISSA, 2022; ISSA and UNU-EGOV, 2022).

By systematically involving users in solution-creation, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) in Ireland makes their services client-centred. Customer research and testing provides valuable information on the user experience and can reveal if terminology and functionality are meeting accessibility needs or proving challenging to users. Through this systematic inclusion of customers in the design and testing of services, the DSP aims not only to balance customer and business requirements, but also to simplify the use of its services. Ultimately this enhances the take-up of online services by creating a space for DSP staff to support clients struggling with online accessibility (Fitzpatrick, 2023).

It is important to point out that while customer-centric digital solutions enable improved access to digital channels, implementation can prove more costly in terms of time and financing than a single solution for all customers. Additionally, successful digitalization may also require investment in customer skills development. Combatting digital exclusion goes beyond welfare provision and involves digital skills development at the workplace or training for the unemployed, use of accessible language, and guidance from family and relatives. Furthermore, to ensure social security reaches the most vulnerable, institutions must engage in active outreach to offer digital skills development training. In Norway, for example, ten per cent of the national population lacks digital competencies. As a strategic response, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) conducted training for digitally savvy “super-supporters” then tasked with reaching out to vulnerable groups (Hansen, 2023).

The digital transition can prove challenging to implement when faced with complex rules and fragmented institutional models of operation. Recognizing that eligible groups care more about a user-friendly digital solution than the institution implementing it, the Ministry of Social Security in Luxembourg began to offer social benefits through additional digital services, while maintaining each independent body or institutional gateway. More than 80 services have been digitalized. A lesson-learnt was to bring together legal experts and their digitalization counterparts for the co‑design of legislation, hastening the digital transition (Hostert, 2023).

In Finland, because there is limited domestic empirical research on the non-take-up of benefits, the Social Insurance Institution (Kela) has engaged in microsimulation methods to calculate entitled households versus those that have applied for benefits. Although Finland boasts a low non-take-up rate, access to benefit take-up is still a challenge for a part of its population. Classical ways of addressing the issue are to facilitate access to information by avoiding the use of complex terminology and making information easily accessible via guidance, counselling, and a multisectoral approach. On the institutional level, Kela aims to be proactive by applying data mining to its databases to identify target groups. In a legislative reform proposal, Kela suggests, as a tool to combat non-take-up, that people have the option to declare an interest in a proposed benefit in an online portal. Upon acceptance of their application, the benefit would then be initiated (Turunen, 2023).

Communication and outreach

Worldwide, communication and outreach are key enablers in fostering access to social security services, as was the case in Lithuania. Since July 2021, old-age pensioners and persons with disabilities in Lithuania have been eligible for the “Single Person’s Benefit.” Unaware the benefit existed and that they were entitled, unsure how to submit the application, and unable to use online services, more than half of the initial 60,000 eligible persons failed to apply. Upon initiating an information awareness campaign, the State Social Insurance Fund Board (SoDra) began receiving a influx of inquiries from ineligible persons, but was still not reaching those for whom the benefit was designed. SoDra therefore developed a new software that collects data on marital status from the population register to identify eligible persons, and automated the payment. 230,000 single persons now receive the benefit (Zitikytė, 2023).

The General Directorate for Social Security (Direção-Geral da Segurança Social) and the Social Security Institute (Instituto da Segurança Social) in Portugal recognized the challenge public institutions face in identifying people’s needs, particularly because people expect public services to incorporate their preferences. Part of the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan for Portugal is a 200 million Euro investment in the digital transformation of social security (project “Clic”). The aim of the plan is threefold. First, get closer to users through automation of social benefits, personalized assistance, and simplified contributions. Second, innovate and digitize processes through modernized online platform services, interoperability between administrations and companies, and a smart and inclusive relationship between social security institutions and the public. Third, enhance efficiency and resilience through an infrastructure upgrade and intelligent fraud prevention. This ambitious project also includes an internal and external communication plan designed to ensure optimum dissemination within the social security institutions concerned and among the public (Salgado and Matos, 2023).

While digitalization may generate barriers to access of social security services, it can streamline the take-up of benefits through process automation. It can foster a rights-based approach to social security, made possible by the modernization of services to meet a wider need. While streamlining the interaction between institutions, automation can reshape the relationship between users and institutions by increasing information awareness and autonomy. Simultaneously, in-person services should also cover hard-to-reach populations. In an effort to communicate to citizens their right to social security entitlements, social security institutions engage in communication and outreach campaigns through partnerships with municipalities, media and social media, direct engagement with citizens, and meetings with stakeholders.

Providing services to populations with specific needs

Social protection gaps still exist. Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggests that gaps in income support, for example, occur because support depends on multiple programmes, statutory rules and implementation, and the composition or size of the intended target group (Immervoll, 2023).

To reach populations that do not have access to health coverage, the Ministry of Social Security in Luxembourg launched the Universal Health Care Coverage (Couverture Universelle des Soins de Santé – CUSS) pilot project in April 2022. Recognizing the right to health coverage for everyone, rather than a basic system for those without coverage versus a more comprehensive one for those affiliated, the target population was established and consisted of low-income residents who are ineligible for other types of public support. To reach the target population, the Ministry cooperated with non-governmental organizations operating in the field under an agreement with the Ministry of Health. Once the request to enrol in CUSS is made by the organization, it is validated by the Ministry of Health and the Joint Social Security Centre (Centre Commun de la Sécurité Sociale – CCSS). So far, 190 individuals have benefitted from the CUSS. The plan to enlarge the project includes a targeted awareness and information campaign, a legislative basis for the right to access the UHCC, and the digitalization of payments (Fernandes, 2023).

Based on EUROMOD, a tax-benefit micro-simulation model financed by the European Commission (European Commission 2019-2023), the Federal Public Service for Social Security (Service public fédéral Sécurité sociale) in Belgium created its own model called BELMOD, which aims to reduce the non-take-up of social security rights. It can identify potential beneficiaries, verify the benefits to which an individual or family has the right, and the respective amount of entitlement. In addition, it can simulate the impact a change in benefit calculation would have on recipients with different or special needs, such as someone going back to work part-time after being temporarily disabled. BELMOD facilitates the automation of social security rights, consequently enabling service delivery to populations with special needs (Samyn, 2023).

In Azerbaijan, the State Social Protection Fund under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Azerbaijan used an Artificial Intelligence-based web application to facilitate impartiality and efficiency in the examination of household conditions. The application permitted systematic data management and redundancy elimination. With a streamlined examination process, the transition from human-based decision-making to the digital‑centric approach enhanced both access to services and transparency. In the end, 10,520 persons who were previously denied the benefit in 2021 received the Targeted State Social Assistance (TSSA) benefit in 2022, and previously miscalculated amounts were returned to low‑income families. There was a 35 per cent reduction in written complaints and a 22 per cent increase in customer satisfaction compared to 2021 (96.5 per cent in 2022), and a 21 per cent decrease in the workload of the Fund’s Central Branch for Examination of Household Conditions (Khanalibayli, 2023).

Final remarks and the way forward  

The IEN Technical Seminar “Social security and human rights − Ensuring access and combatting the non⁠-⁠take-up of social benefits” served to promote a more inclusive and equitable society in which every individual can exercise their social rights and benefit from adequate social protection.

With international human rights frameworks as the basis, preventing the non-take-up of social security rights in practice can significantly benefit from automation to reach a wider number of beneficiaries, customer-centric services (ISSA, 2023), fostering digital inclusion (ISSA, 2022; ISSA and UNU-EGOV, 2022), and enhancing outreach to communicate entitlement to social security. Meanwhile, national legislation, awareness campaigns, and in-person services can contribute to ensuring social security systems are not leaving anyone behind. In addition, it is also important to remember that process automation and customer services digitalization projects should address potential institutional and environmental constraints that could hinder the implemented solutions.

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