Proud parents Peter and Mirjam came back from the hospital with their newborn child 2 weeks ago.

It's now time, they realized, to apply for the state maternity and paternity benefits for which they're eligible under Estonian law.

They were living in the countryside, far away from any government offices, but that was no problem – they had a laptop and an internet connection. This was something they could do without even getting out of bed.

Using Mobile ID, they logged onto the State Portal and easily found the link to state benefits. Once they filled in the fields on a few pages and attached their digital signatures, they were done.

The system took care of the work, using the X-Road to access the relevant data from the hospital database, the Insurance Fund, the Social Affairs Ministry and other agencies, saving what could have been days spent collecting the documents and submitting the applications in-person. As it was, the whole process took Peter and Mirjam just 30 minutes.

Thanks to Estonia's e-infrastructure, Peter and Mirjam were able to spend these first few hours at home in peace, knowing their benefit money was on the way.