The Digital and Public Administration Survey of the Ferrer Guardia Foundation reveals that 60% of Spaniards believe that the digitalization of procedures with the Administration violates their rights. This perception reaches 90% among those over 75 years of age. 35% believe that citizen attention has worsened with digital procedures, especially among the most vulnerable groups. 85% value that the Administration maintains in-person attention to citizen services.
Thus, according to this study, 21% of the population lacks a digital certificate, Cl@ve PIN or electronic DNI, a percentage that reaches 42.8% among retirees and 40% among people with incomes of less than 1,100 euros monthly.
However, 74.5% agree with the creation of a single portal for all procedures, 63.6% prefer to carry out procedures from their mobile phone and 43.4% support the Administration using personal data for services and information.
Digital procedures related to rights and obligations present significant levels of inequality, where the lack of digital skills, the absence of strategies to solve problems and the omission of help in the process contribute to the gap. That is why digitalization has become an additional barrier for vulnerable groups.
In this sense, the study suggests the implementation of in-person, telephone or video call support and with a single digital identification system for all procedures. The report also detects that digital gaps persist, since 8% of the population does not have access to the internet, 13% does not have a mobile phone and 17% does not have a computer. Age and education influence these inequalities, since they consider that 31.1% of citizens consider their digital skills to be basic and 35.2% to be intermediate. These percentages are reflected in the fact that 40% of people have very low confidence in carrying out digital procedures and, therefore, are unable to take on challenges related to technology.
The study presented by its authors, Sandra Gómez and Maria Padró-Solanet, points out that vulnerable groups interact less with the Administration, which exacerbates these inequalities in digital procedures. In addition, the survey was conducted among 1,200 people over the age of 16 by telephone, taking into account geographic distribution and sociodemographic variables.
