The provision of digital public services (e-services) is advancing in Brazil, but the population struggles to engage. A common complaint is that dealing with the government online is complicated. Barriers to interaction with e-government have been discussed without further exploring the role of officialese , the public sector s textual style. This study investigated how textual style can affect the comprehensibility of information about e-services and how confusing officialese can be, even to proficient readers. The research was based on textual comprehensibility concepts in Ergonomics, Information Design, and Psycholinguistics; it examined linguistic characteristics of officialese; gathered information on the reading skills of Brazilians; gathered information about the Plain Language movement and technique; and investigated the level of digitalization of federal services in Brazil. The research first examined Plain Language guideline documents from eleven governments, both national and international. Next, an experimental study was conducted in which 42 adults with post-graduate degrees in different areas read two versions of a text about Sickness Benefit. One as it appeared on the INSS website, and another version rewritten in Plain Language – assessing comprehension in each condition. The Plain Language version scored a higher number of correct answers on first reading, prompted fewer re-readings of the text, and required less time to complete the comprehension test. The experiment also assessed the user-experience of government texts and websites: it was the same for the majority of participants. Information on government websites and apps is confusing and difficult to understand, and there is little concern about making things easier for users, who instead prefer to search for information on independent websites.