Your housing benefit hasn't arrived three weeks running. Your landlord wants you out and your kids want attention. Do you calmly log on to the council's website to find out what's happened to your money?
Do you hell. Even if you have an internet account (which is unlikely, if you're on benefits), you want to bang your fist on somebody's desk until they've sorted out your problem. In e-government jargon, you want a face-to-face channel transaction.
Although most newcomers to the subject assume that e- government is about putting public services on the web, councils and other government organisations are finding that other channels are much more important. These include telephone call centres and "one-stop shops".
Several councils are testing electronic kiosks in high streets. Meanwhile, the office of the e-envoy, which is driving the national e-government programme, has a vision of the future in which digital TVs and mobile phones become the main channels for communication with officialdom.
A report published last week by the Department for Work and Pensions, the gov ernment agency that probably matters most to most people, shows the importance of keeping multiple channels open. The department's researchers found that only 8% of the working population said they would prefer to contact the government about benefits through the internet or email, rather than traditional channels.
The most popular channel is face-to-face contact at the local office, closely followed by a telephone call. This represents a huge number of people: about one person in three has contacted the government about benefits over the past year. Predictably, the survey, carried out late last year, showed that people on lower incomes, the unemployed and those with "disrupted careers" are most likely to make face-to-face contact. People in higher income groups make more use of the phone, with the self-employed the most likely to go online.
Older people tend to prefer the phone, followed by a face-to-face visit, and are also more likely to prefer writing a letter. Conversely, they are much less inclined to use IT and are less likely to have to contact the government. E-government enthusiasts will point to one piece of good news. When prompted about the possibility of dealing with the government online, a narrow majority said they would be "very, or fairly, likely" to use the internet.
That's if they can get online. The survey backs up previous findings on the digital divide: while about half the population claim to have used the internet in the past year, 30% had never used a computer. Only 14% of retired people had used the internet. At the Office of the e-envoy, the solution is digital TV (DTV). In a policy paper published for consultation last week it said: "Government at all levels ... should evaluate DTV as a key channel for e-government using the strengths of this medium to deliver richer services and inclusivity."
Especially inclusivity. Despite the ITV Digital fiasco, the e-envoy expects up to three-quarters of UK homes to have digital TV by the e-government deadline date, 2005. The technology is also a class leveller: in C2 and DE social groups, more peo ple have digital TV than have internet access. The e-envoy caused a few waves earlier this year by launching a version of its UK Online portal under the name UK Online Interactive on BSkyB digital.
Nearly 100,000 households have used the service, it reported in September, claiming to be overwhelmed by the positive response. Of 17,000 users to have responded to a questionnaire, nine out of 10 would use the service again. Yet even this sample of self-selecting enthusiasts wouldn't abandon other channels. While 67% would be very or quite likely to apply for a passport on interactive TV, only 49% would be very or quite likely to book a driving test through the medium.
However you spin such figures, they consistently show that the biggest groups of people using government services are the least likely to use them online. If e-government were a business, this would not be a good starting point.
