Digital Inequality and Access by Low-Income Individuals to Public Benefits

This study presents novel data on digital inequality to describe differences in individuals’ online interactions with public and private sector services. Using two-month smartphone tracking data collected every five seconds from 65 low- and high-income U.S. adults (N = 13,498,584 screens), we assessed when individuals did and did not face obstacles during interactions with public benefits programs and commercial financial services (e.g., banks, credit cards). Drawing on theories of time inequality and the psychology of poverty, we report four main results that reveal the distinct challenges faced by low-income individuals when accessing public benefits online. First, the vast majority (92.9%) of low-income individuals often encountered obstacles when accessing public benefits via government websites or programs. Slow-loading websites were the most common problem, while user errors (e.g., misplaced passwords, noncompliance with recertification) were infrequent. Second, low-income individuals faced more difficulties accessing public benefits compared to commercial financial services. We found that 92.9% of low-income individuals faced issues with public benefits, compared to only 47.6% when using financial services. Low-income individuals also experienced significantly longer wait times for accessing public benefits than accessing financial services. Third, low- and high-income individuals’ interactions with financial services were generally similar. Lastly, encountering obstacles to public benefits generated notable psychological reactions in low-income individuals, such as decreased consumption of words relating to complex thinking (e.g., think, why) in content observed after the interaction. Public benefits are designed to provide support for low-income individuals, but challenges in accessing them online are another facet of digital inequality.