Is government welfare able to change? Analysing efforts to Co-create an improved social welfare system through taking advantage of a collaborative economy

Abstract

Welfare sectors across the world are facing the need to balance the contrast between economic pressures due to demographic changes and peoples' rising expectations of receiving services that are transparent; timely and tailored to citizens' habits and needs. This means that governments are pressured to look for new ways to deliver public services. This article looks at two co-created peer-to-peer platforms that are engaged in delivering public services in the welfare sector, Helpific and Caremate, and their development and role in the Estonian welfare sector. These platforms appear to hold substantial potential for changing the current system of delivering public services, however they have not yet managed to acquire the anticipated level of success. By examining these two cases, it is proposed that the room and support for developing new solutions, using experience in the field and overcoming the digital divide must be assured in order to make changes in government welfare possible.