Digital Exclusion and Social Protection Accessibility among Older Adults in China

Abstract

China’s social protection system is becoming increasingly digital while its population ages rapidly. By the end of 2025, 323.38 million people were aged 60 years or older, yet the internet-use rate for this group was 53.7%. This integrative narrative review examines how digital exclusion affects older adults’ ability to obtain social protection in China. Rather than proposing an entirely new framework, it integrates a three-level model of digital inequality (access, skills and use, and outcomes) with the administrative-burden framework (learning, compliance, and psychological costs), and applies this synthesis across the full service journey and across five protection programmes whose burden profiles differ in transaction frequency, risk, and exposed groups. The evidence shows that digital barriers can arise at every stage of the service journey, including discovery, authentication, application, receipt, maintenance, and redress. Risks are greatest for the oldest-old, rural residents, people with limited education or income, persons with disability or cognitive decline, and those without reliable assistance. China’s age-friendly policies and continued offline provision are important, but interface adaptation alone cannot resolve fragmented procedures or inaccessible verification. Effective digital social protection requires equivalent channels, simpler documentation, trusted assisted-digital support, safe delegation, interoperable data, and evaluation based on successful benefit receipt rather than online activity.