Self-informing of the population on social welfare and social services in modern Russia under the digitalization of society

We present an analysis of the new trends in the interaction between the social welfare system and citizens in the context of digitalization in Russia. These trends relate to the transition from the traditional model of work «man – man» to the remote model «man – computer – man». Particular emphasis is put on the inevitable acceleration of this process under the influence of the self-isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. We describe in detail the tendency to form informal communities in the virtual space allowing the population to create additional, alternative self-informing channels about social benefits and social services. The reasons for the popularity of such essentially self-help groups in social networks, giving citizens a possibility to satisfy their information needs in matters of social welfare and social services without the participation of authorities, have been identified on the basis of a number of empirical studies conducted in the Perm region in 2020. A high level of public confidence in these alternative communication channels at the horizontal level is shown. At the same time, we present an analysis of the reasons for people’s dissatisfaction with the official channels of information due to a number of negative attitudes in the public consciousness regarding official websites of social welfare bodies and social agencies as well as the quality of face-to-face and distance counseling by their employees. There are given some recommendations on improving the digitalization of social welfare and social services, such as changing the approach to generating content on official web-sites, remote counseling methods, introducing Internet services for selecting benefits and social services, choosing a social agency, filing complaints, etc. The public expectations in this sphere are also presented.