David Hanak When you need to deal with an administrative transaction with the authorities, it is usually possible to pay by card, although there are cases where everything has to be paid for with the help of stamps (for which you have to go to the post office). This is not exactly a good calling card of the "digitalization of public administration", which politicians have been brandishing for several years. On the other hand, in Great Britain they are on the other side. For selected administrative actions and the fees for them, the possibility of payment via Apple Pay and Google Pay is being tested, which is ideally the music of the future in the area of payment for administrative fees.
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Dan Pražák A pilot project is currently operating in the UK to test alternative payment methods for selected administrative fees. The British authorities have begun to support payments using methods using biometric ways of verifying the identity of the owner to a limited extent, through the official websites of the relevant authorities. People do not have to go to the authorities to settle administrative fees, but can pay them in the comfort of their homes or on the go.
In the case of Apple products, it is Apple Pay using Touch ID and Face ID. If the current test operation turns out to be a functional and usable solution, the British authorities will extend the possibility of this method of payment to other operations, with the fact that, ideally, by the end of this year, almost everything that citizens can pay for should be covered.
Currently, this method is used to pay fees for processing visas, for an extract from the criminal and debt register, for fees related to passports and for electronic visas. Further expansion will rather concern nationwide services, actions within regional administrative units will come later.
However, the most positive thing for the citizens of the UK is that something is happening and there even seems to be some concrete roadmap for the rollout. In addition to convenience, the newly tested system is also praised in terms of security. The payment takes place through a third party, so citizens do not have to enter their payment card details on the websites of individual authorities.
Hopefully, we will see something similar sometime in the future. As part of the digitization of state administration, there should be a simplification of actions connected with handling official matters, and the possibility to pay fees "from the field", without the need to physically go to the office, is definitely an example of such simplification.
Source: Appleinsider, The Verge
