Digitalization of Pension Claiming in Sweden

In the context of increasingly complex multi-pillar pension systems, elderly often struggle to understand how the pension system works and how they should withdraw their pensions. To help elderly to collect information on pensions in all three pillars and to plan, coordinate, and initiate pension payments, MinPension introduced a new online tool for pension claiming, called Uttagsplaneraren (UP), in 2019. Despite the increased use of digital tools in the welfare sector, the overall empirical evidence on user adoption and user welfare effects is scarce. This project addresses this gap by analyzing individual-level data on the usage of UP.

We collaborate with MinPension to evaluate the new online tool. The aim is to understand if UP reduces the complexity of pension claiming and thereby leads to better decisions and improved life quality for the elderly. Moreover, the project aims to understand the advantages and limitations of digital pension tools. In particular, we want to answer the following four questions: (i) Who makes use of UP and how? (ii) Does UP affect pension claiming decisions? (iii) Does UP improve the welfare of the users? (iv) Do information and decision-framing affect user behavior?

We expect overall positive effects for the end users, although the benefits may vary depending on their digital skills. Digital tools could therefore lead to new forms of societal exclusion and even reinforce existing socio-economic inequalities. We will map regional and socio-economic differences in user adoption to identify winners and losers in the general trend towards the increased digitalization of the welfare state. In addition, our results will provide guidance for MinPension in the further development of the tool.