Digitalization of public services has been high up on the political agenda in Sweden, with considerable efforts that accompany other initiatives to reform and modernize production of welfare services and their administration. Digital solutions are used to build both technical and organizational innovations in public services, as well as in bureaucratic decision-making. The “Digital first principle” is guiding the European policies in the field and is also central in the Swedish digitalization strategy for public administration. This means that the contact between the citizens, the companies or other society actors, and the public sector authorities shall initially and to largest possible extent occur digitally.

    A digital innovation that is currently spreading among Swedish municipalities is automatizing social assistance services mainly addressing income support for vulnerable citizens. In a context of nationally highly regulated income support schemes, the municipalities manage the digitalization of services highly differently, coping with inherent tensions in relation to their local autonomy. We have conducted a long-term case study following such an implementation case in a medium size Swedish municipality. Based on interviews, observations and workshops we can conclude that the implementation is hampered since it is not focusing on the core to coach for self-support and that it even made the system less transparent. This indicates that the principle ‘digital first’ has to be embedded into the core focus of the service and not address shallow interfaces.