Automated Decision-Making in the Welfare System

Our new report, Welf(AI)re: A Racial and Gender Injustice Analysis of AI and Automated Decision-Making in UK Social Security, examines the use of AI, algorithms and automated decision-making systems known to be used in the UK’s welfare system.

We found that although AI and ADM are likely used throughout the welfare system to allocate and administer housing and benefits, there is a baked-in lack of transparency about their use. AI governance is patchy, and AI success is measured in cost savings rather than improvements to people’s quality of life. 

Meanwhile, little research exists on the impact on Black women and Black gender-expansive people. Where racial and gendered discrimination is considered at all, there is a focus on ‘bias’ as something accidental and correctable, which obscures the systemic oppression resulting from structurally racist technological infrastructures.   

As the Government accelerates public sector adoption of AI tools often on the basis of cost savings and efficiencies, we urge for the preservation of human rights, equal access, and racial and gender justice, and a system that meets the material needs of the people that depend on it.