Comment by elric
6 hours ago
When I lived in the UK in the early-mid 00s, I was really confused by how much of a digital backwater it was. Opening a bank account required several months of utility bills (on paper!) with my name as "proof of address". Taxes were paper only. Paper payslips. No concept of interacting with the government in any digital way. No concept of government ID other than a full size passport, which made the many silly age checks in pubs and stores rather laughable.
I'm sure things have gotten better, but I'll never forget how backwards it all seemed coming from puny Belgium.
The UK has had internet filing for self-assessment taxes since July 2000 [1]. I started doing freelance web consulting around them while at university and filed online. It was considerably easier than filing my taxes in the US is now! (Most people in the UK don't have to file taxes at all since the right amount of tax is withheld by their employer.)
While the UK might not have been the first, there was a big push to move government services online over the 2000s. I think this may have been easier than in other countries since so many services were run by post rather than requiring you to go to a particular government office.
Opening a bank account became much more difficult in the early 2000s because of the money laundering/terrorism financing legislation. It became a real pain for international students when I worked in a student union back then.
The liberal resistance to ID cards in Britain was more reasonable before it became required to prove your identity so often. Not having an ID card has become a bit of a pain now, especially for elderly people who may not have a driving licence or current passport.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fascinating-facts-about-s...
Things for sure are better, once you are kinda on the digital ladder with various things its ok. Drivers License, NI Number, Passport and Proof of address documents are all fairly trivial to get
Payslips are fully automated and there is a nice HMRC app that lets you see your PAYE income. Also, the NHS app is not half bad, you can mostly access any previous information but its not always fully populated due to a mixed bag of records
> No concept of government ID other than a full size passport, which made the many silly age checks in pubs and stores rather laughable.
Memorising your Birthday to be 2 years earlier to fool the pub bouncer was what we all did.
Hmm try Italy or Spain…
Spain was finally forced to improve some of their systems during covid. Its still a bit of a mess, but at least you can do some things online now.
When I lived in Spain getting my NIE number was a pain as the office was open for 2 hours in the morning. Luckily I was with an English person that spoke Spanish that helped me fill out the forms.