Reducing Administrative Burden in Public Services

Most of us know the little drop in our stomach that comes with realizing that a wallet has gone missing. A driver’s license, a health card, bank and credit cards, transit access, and maybe a work badge are now suddenly scattered into separate replacement processes with separate rules, offices, and proofs required for replacement. The process of retrieving all the missing belongings can quickly turn into days of calls, forms, waiting rooms, identity checks, and repeat explanations. Although the cards were lost at one time, you’re left stuck losing time over and over.

For many people, that burden may be showing up every week. Older adults may be managing paperwork across health, income, and transportation systems while dealing with mobility limits or cognitive strain. People with disabilities may be asked to re-prove eligibility, repeat medical histories, or navigate channels that were never designed with accessibility in mind. For people experiencing homelessness, a missing ID card can set off a vicious chain reaction, as access to shelter, benefits, medication, banking, and housing are dependent on a document that’s challenging to keep safe in the first place. 

Public service leaders have been trying to fix administrative burden for years, but the strain often persists because it’s being produced by the journey itself; people are asked to move their information across agencies, decode unfamiliar rules, recover from minor errors, and keep pace with systems that drain time, paperwork, and attention at every step. A routine service process on paper can become a grinding series of forms, proofs, referrals, and repeat explanations in real life, and for marginalized and vulnerable populations, that burden may be piling up so often that it starts to shape whether help ends up being reachable at all.

Behavioral science principles can help create solutions that make public services easier to reach, complete, and stay connected to. Nudges, used carefully, might support follow-through at the right moment instead of adding another reminder to an already crowded pile. A “no wrong door” approach may reduce the penalty for entering through the “wrong” service, and warm handoffs could keep people from being bounced from desk to desk with nothing but a phone number or website. For organizations that’ve already spent years refining forms, portals, and instructions, these tools could help more people complete benefit applications, stay connected to essential services, and remain active participants in civic and social life.