Administrative services are offered by public organisations and enable businesses and the public to comply with regulations and laws, exercise their rights, or claim benefits to which they are entitled. Examples of commonly used administrative services include paying taxes, issuing identity documents and applying for benefits.
The accessibility of administrative services reflects the government’s capacity to accurately recognise the nature of the public’s needs, and tailor delivery to diverse needs. In the OECD Survey on the Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions 2021, 65.1% of respondents expected information about administrative procedures to be easily available in their country (Figure 3.7). However, there are significant variations across countries, with Ireland (83.0%) and the Netherlands (78.9%) having the highest levels of perceived ease of access to information. In general, countries which have higher expectations in this area also tend to have greater satisfaction with administrative services (OECD, 2022). Lack of information is only one barrier to accessing administrative services, however. Others include geographical distance, inadequate facilities for users, insufficient delivery channels, use of complex language and excessive administrative burdens.
Responsive public services recognise people have different needs and adapt to support them. Rather than adopting a “one size fits all” approach, a responsive administrative service takes people’s views into account. User support entails providing two-way communication channels through which people receive answers on how their complaints have been treated. Figure 3.8 shows the share of users who accessed administrative services online for whom user support was available. In 2021, Finland, Italy and Türkiye reached 1.0 points (maximum possible score on a scale from 0 to 1) on user support availability, while the average across OECD-EU members is 0.93 points. Considering that these standards are relatively high, 25 out of 26 OECD countries are within 0.07 points of the mean.
Another aspect of public service responsiveness refers to the capacity to meet a diversity of needs by treating everybody fairly. When asked about their own potential application for a generic government benefit or service, a high share of respondents – 58.5% across OECD countries – felt that their application would be treated fairly. Over half of respondents expect to be treated fairly in 18 of the 21 surveyed OECD countries, rising to over 70% in Ireland and the Netherlands (Figure 3.9). Across countries, being confident about fair treatment in applying for government benefits or services is highly and significantly correlated with trust in the civil service (OECD, 2022).
