Information technology and transformations in social security policy and administration: A review

In this paper we analyse the interactive relationship between technology, administration and policy in social security. Focusing on new and emerging information and computing technologies, we show how they have been shaped and adopted by social security institutions in different countries, and explore their differential impact on recipients and staff, on organizational structures, and on policy and practice. We conclude that similar technologies have been adopted in a variety of ways to address different economic, social, political and organizational objectives and that, although these differences are becoming more blurred, different patterns have been associated with different welfare state regimes.