Many administrative procedures are carried out via the Internet. In 2022, it is expected that they are completely dematerialized. At the risk of aggravating digital exclusion.
Today, 80% of the paperwork is still paper-based. But in 2022, all will be done online. This total dematerialization certainly has advantages, but it risks aggravating digital exclusion.
In fact, 15% of French people do not have internet, 19% do not have a home computer and 25% have significant difficulties with the digital tool.
Nearly half of the population is worried about having to carry out most of the administrative procedures online, a quarter considers it to be incapable and nearly a third is waiting for help from the authorities and local support.
A CSA study for the association The Little Brothers of the Poor finds that 27% of seniors, or 4 million people, do not use the internet. A proportion that increases with age, from 14% for the 60’s to 24% for the 70-74-year-olds, 40% for the 75-79-year-olds, 49% for the 80-84 year-olds and 59% beyond 85 years old.
Need an alternative route
Of the 73% of seniors who connect daily, almost a third has already abandoned an online administrative procedure, especially for taxes and social assistance. No wonder when malfunctions accumulate, like the National Agency for Secured Titles (ANTS) which issues online registration certificates for vehicles, replacing the formerly assured home prefecture!
Alerted, the Defender of Rights has questioned the government, believing that users are neither informed nor sufficiently accompanied in these procedures and that their difficulties in accessing and controlling the Internet are not taken into account. In perspective of 2022, he recommends introducing in the law “a clause of protection of the users, foreseeing the obligation to offer an alternative way to the digital service”.
In the meantime, digital points are made available in the prefectures and sub-prefectures so that the users can carry out their steps with the help of mediators. The official website of the French administration offers practical information sheets for using the online services and completing the necessary forms.
