Automating Social Security in the UK: A Study on Incorporating Claimant Voices in the Design of Universal Credit

世界各地的政府都在采用算法系统来提供基本的社会服务，从警务到欺诈检测再到儿童福利。虽然越来越多的研究调查这些系统的设计--它们的基本政策目标和有效性--但在自动化如何影响用户以及用户的观点如何民主地影响这些系统的技术、法律和行政设计方面，文献中存在一个空白。这个项目旨在通过对英国的普遍信贷计划的研究，更广泛地了解自动化社会服务的出现及其对索赔人的影响。这个拟议的项目将通过两组研究问题来考察英国社会保障福利的自动化。(1)是什么政治价值观和政策驱动了构成通用信贷的技术系统？通过对DWP工作人员的采访和文件分析，该项目将阐明环球信贷的更广泛的政治背景，并成为首批绘制该系统技术维度的学术研究之一。(2)索赔人如何与通用信贷的自动化组成部分互动，社会保障中的自动化是否会损害某些人群？通过与索赔人合作的非政府组织的采访和与索赔人本身的研讨会，我将研究通用信贷的自动化功能是否以及如何可能嵌入某些偏见或损害，从而对人们产生不同的影响。用户讲习班将探讨问责制进程，鼓励索赔人就系统本身的设计提供反馈意见；这些活动将提供模板，与用户进行基于证据的协商，以形成算法社会服务。研究将采用混合方法，包括文件分析、实地调查、访谈和用户设计研讨会：(A)文件分析将揭示环球信贷更广泛的政治背景和发展历史。该项目将利用立法和法令、部门报告、网站、准则、议会委员会报告和审计等公共文件以及公共记录请求，以获取系统的技术规格，如供应商合同和具体自动化功能的设计。(B)访谈将进一步阐明UC的设计及其对索赔人的不同影响，包括对DWP工作人员的约15次访谈，接触到DWP UC用户研究团队的项目合作伙伴，以及Universal Credit数字服务团队和DWP的福利和养老金数字技术服务；以及对与索赔人合作或代表索赔人工作的苏格兰非政府组织工作人员的25次访谈。C)通过安置在爱丁堡地区当地的公民咨询局，我将在12个月内每周进行一天的实地工作，以观察Universal Credit的问题与系统的自动化功能相关的频率。D)最后，我将举办六次设计研讨会，重点是苏格兰背景下被数字排除在外的索赔人的样本，DWP的UC用户研究团队发现特别难接触到的一组索赔人进行用户测试，以及一组对其数字技能有信心的索赔人。UC的自动化是一个复杂的主题，跨越几个知识领域，因此需要一种综合的方法，结合政治、设计和自动化社会保障监督的多个视角。这项研究特别涉及缺乏关于索赔人与自动化系统互动的经验的文献。通过公开报道、公共活动和媒体传播，该项目将引发关于索赔人在使用这些系统时面临的问题的讨论，并探索索赔人的声音如何融入他们未来的修改中。

Governments around the world are adopting algorithmic systems to deliver fundamental social services, from policing to fraud detection to child welfare. While a growing set of research investigates the designs of these systems - their underlying policy goals and effectiveness - there is a gap in the literature on how automation impacts users and how user perspectives could democratically inform these system's technical, legal and administrative design. This project sets out to achieve a wider understanding of the emergence of automated social services and their effects on claimants through a study of the UK's Universal Credit scheme. The proposed project will examine the automation of social security benefits in the U.K. through two sets of research questions.(1) What political values and policies drive the technical systems that comprise Universal Credit? By interviewing DWP staff and through document analysis, the project will illuminate Universal Credit's wider political context and be among the first academic studies to map the system's technical dimensions. (2) How do claimants interact with automated components of Universal Credit and does automation in social security harm certain populations? Through interviews with NGOs that work with claimants and workshops with claimants themselves, I will examine whether and how automated features of Universal Credit may embed certain biases or harms that impact people differentially. The user workshops will explore accountability processes that encourage claimants to offer feedback on the design of the system itself; these events will provide templates for evidence-based consultations with users to shape algorithmic social services. The research will involve mixed methods, including document analysis, fieldwork, interviews, and user design workshops:(a) Document analysis will reveal Universal Credit's wider political context and history of development. The project will draw on public documents such as legislation and decrees, departmental reports, websites, guidelines, parliamentary committee reports, and audits, as well as public records requests to gain access to technical specifications of the system, such as vendor contracts and designs of specific automated functions. (b) Interviews will further illuminate the design of UC and its differential impacts on claimants, including approximately 15 interviews with DWP staff, reaching out to project partners on the DWP's UC User Research team, as well as the Universal Credit digital services team and the DWP's Benefits and Pensions Digital Technology Services; and 25 interviews with staff at Scottish NGOs that work with or on behalf of claimants. c) Through placement in a Citizen Advice Bureau local to the Edinburgh region, I will conduct fieldwork one day a week for 12 months to observe how often problems with Universal Credit relate to automated features of the system. d) Finally, I will hold six design workshops, focusing on a sample of digitally excluded claimants in the Scottish context, a group that the DWP's UC User Research team has found particularly difficult to reach for user testing, as well as a comparison group of claimants who are confident in their digital skills.Automation in UC is a complex topic that spans several knowledge domains and therefore demands an integrated approach, combining multiple perspectives on the politics, designs, and oversight of automated social security. The study particularly addresses a lack of literature on the experiences of claimants as they interact with automated systems. Through public reports, public events and media dissemination, the project will spark discussion on the problems claimants face while using these systems and explore how claimant voices can feed into their future modifications.