The research company Ipsos conducted a study on behalf of DG Digital Transformation (FPS Strategy and Support) which showed that 70% of Belgians find it easy to use online public services. The survey studied, among other things, awareness of federal online public services, the need to ensure the trust of Belgians and the need to guarantee the inclusion of all users, including the most digitally vulnerable.
While Tax-on-web remains the all-time leader with 79% awareness, followed by MyPension (69%), MyMinFin (59%), the online municipal counter (37%) and My eBox (31%), MyMinFin (+8%) and My eBox (+11%) have also made good progress. The Ipsos study shows that almost half of Belgians use the eID (49%) and an increasing number of people use the itsme© mobile app (32%) to log in, an increase of 11% compared to the previous measurement. The use of Single Sign On (visiting different public websites during the same session) is also very popular. More than 80% of those surveyed consider this to be an added value. It also appears that anyone familiar with one of the Administration's digital services also uses it to a large extent.
According to the same study, Belgians attach great importance to easy, user-friendly, but above all secure access to online public services. The study shows that the online trust of Belgians needs to be increased, not only with regard to receiving administrative documents online, but also to other online transactions.
By digitising public services, there is still a risk of excluding part of the population. The digital inclusion of all users is a challenge for the authorities: almost 40% of respondents said they needed help to use online public services. The majority of this group prefer email support (49%), but a large percentage (42%) also prefer a physical meeting.
The priority for the authorities is to adopt a human-centred approach when designing and/or optimising a new online public service!
You can download the full study via this link.
