Half of Estonian residents support linking benefits to income

Kaupo Koppel, an expert at the Foresight Centre, said that people expect the state to provide more services and support tailored to their needs. “According to our survey, more than 70% of people want personalised advice from the state and more than 60% want more choice. However, people’s opinions are divided on need-based benefits. People with lower income support income-based benefits more than those with higher incomes. For example, in the case of unemployment and pharmaceutical benefits, income-based benefits are supported twice as much by people with lower income than by those who are wealthier,” said Koppel.

On average, one in two people supports need-based child benefits. However, there are large differences between age groups: 68% of those aged 65+ are in favour of it, compared to only 38% of those aged 35-44. The respective figures for parental benefits are 61% and 38%.

The Foresight Centre survey also found that the state system of services and benefits is easily understood by less than a third (30%) of Estonian residents and 27% think it meets their needs. At the same time, more than half (55%) of the residents believe the system is slow and mired in bureaucracy.

Sharing additional data to personalise public services and benefits is acceptable to citizens primarily if it is transparent (78%), strictly regulated and secure (75%) or brings direct personal benefits to the individual or their family (66%). Residents are much less willing to share their data for state-oriented purposes, such as economic growth (43%), saving on public spending (34%) or promoting Estonia’s international reputation (24%).

“Many feel that the state has reached or even exceeded their comfort zone with its data collection,” Koppel said. “It is now up to the state to focus on more efficient, transparent and secure use of the data it already has.”

The short report ‘Attitudes of Estonian residents towards personalisation of public services’ (in Estonian) is part of the Foresight Centre’s research stream ‘The Future of the Personalised State’, which aims to find out the possibilities of data-based personalisation in services and benefits in the social and educational sectors and to create alternatives.