This Disability Alliance factsheet is a basic introduction to the use of voice risk analysis sofware in relation to benefit claims. You can find out more information on claiming benefits in Disability Rights UK's Disability Rights Handbook, available to buy at www.radar-shop.org.uk/.
All our publications are available at www.disabilityalliance.org/shop.htm. You can also place an order by contacting Disability Rights UK on 020 7247 8776 (this is not an advice line) or by fax on 020 7247 8765. All our factsheets are available at www.disabilityalliance.org/fact.htm.
Voice risk analysis (VRA) is a system which uses computer software to analyse your voice when you are contacted by someone in relation to your benefit. It has been piloted by local authorities and the DWP. Following these pilots the DWP has abandoned plans to implement VRA nationally.
Whenever a customer provides information over the telephone VRA technology can detect any change in that caller’s voice whilst he or she is being questioned. The technology (software) tells a member of staff whether these changes indicate that the caller's responses are high risk or low risk. High risk is considered to indicate a possible fraudulent claim, which merits further investigation.
VRA technology looks for changes in voice patterns such as any hesitation or unwillingness to answer a question bur before it can do this the caller/staff member needs to first 'calibrate' the software at the beginning of an interview.
He or she does this by asking basic questions confirming the interviewee's personal details, such as his or her name, address and date of birth. This establishes the 'normal' pitch and tone of the interviewee's voice so that any change can be detected when the more probing questions begin.
When more detailed questioning begins if the claimant’s responses are hesitant or repetitive HR (high risk) flashes on the questioner’s screen. If not LR (low risk appears).
The ‘success’ of the system depends on three things:
The questioner has the power to override HR messages to prevent false readings - for example if someone is hard of hearing and hesitates or asks for questions to be repeated.
VRA is not new. It is used in the insurance industry as part of what is known as Advanced Validation Solutions (AVS), developed by a company called Digilog. AVS uses VRA technology.
Disability Alliance, together with other organisations, has already expressed some misgivings about the use of VRA for people with certain disabilities.
The first use of VRA for benefit claimants was by Harrow Council, in May 2007, for housing benefit and council tax benefit (HB/CTB) claims. Using funding from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Harrow Council began a year-long pilot.
It used Digilog’s Advanced Validation Solutions (AVS) in its call centre. Digilog are working in partnership with Capita, who handle a number of government contracts as well as the congestion charging scheme in London.
At Harrow, claimants were sent an initial letter, warning them to expect a phone call in relation to their claim for benefit. This call could be to verify an existing claim or to make a new claim.
Customers could opt out of the call if they wished to do so. During the initial pilot over 5% (53 people) did this in Harrow.
If the customer was low risk he or she was fast tracked through any claims process. If the call is to verify a claim no further action is taken.
Those whose responses are termed high risk were usually given a home visit. In some cases this may have later involved a fraud investigation.
Harrow Council claimed that VRA saved taxpayers £50,000 per month (or £300 per working hour). It also claimed that out of nearly one thousand people to have been assessed using this new technology, 43 (4.3%) were labelled as ‘high-risk’ and their benefit claims were later found to be false and potentially fraudulent.
The council believed there was ‘strong anecdotal evidence’ that the lie detector test was having a significant deterrent effect on ‘would-be fraudsters’ as claimants were now volunteering information to say that their personal circumstances had changed and they no longer needed benefits.
Harrow also claimed that, in addition to combating fraud, the aspiration of the original Harrow pilot was to replace their 30-page housing benefit review form and speed up their three to six week processing time with a 15-20 minute telephone call whilst also reducing the verification process.
Capita also claimed that VRA produces speedy claim processing and improved customer service (see the press release Voice risk analysis test to be piloted in more regions published on 5 August 2008 on the Capita website).
Following Harrow's pilot, six other councils began to pilot Digilog’s AVS solution and VRA technology as well as Harrow, with the first beginning in September 2007. These were:
In April 2008, the then, fraud minister James Plaskitt announced funding for a larger trial of VRA. These pilots, like the others, will be partnered by Capita. The following councils were successful in their bid to run a pilot:
The first of these new pilots began on 18 August 2008. All of the pilots were up and running by the end of November 2008. The pilots ran for 12 months, after which there was be an evaluation of the effectiveness of VRA technology in reducing fraud and error in HB. The original seven pilots also continued.
In its 2005 strategy document Reducing fraud in the benefit system: achievements and ambitions, the Government made a public commitment to test Voice Risk Analysis technology, as one method of preventing fraudulent claims to Social Security benefits over the telephone.
The DWP identified three criteria crucial to the success of VRA:
The DWP organised two groups of trials. The first, in 2008, involved six local authorities and Jobcentre Plus. The second phase trial was expanded to 24 local authorities. Voice risk analysis (VRA) software was used to analyse phone calls from people applying for, or updating existing claims for, housing benefit, council tax, income support and jobseeker's allowance. Information from 45,000 calls was included in the evaluation.
The DWP found that VRA was only successful in five of the trials and did not represent value for money.
Nine local authorities used VRA on calls about new benefit claims. Of these, only three said it worked well enough to highlight risky callers without raising too many false alarms.
Twelve local authorities used VRA to spot cheats during benefit reviews but only one judged the trial to have been a success.
A spokesperson for the DWP said:
"We have got the analysis back and have been going through whether it works when applied to the benefits system. This is the first time it has been used in the benefits system and the decision is that it is not very good value for money."
The DWP have now abandoned the proposed implementation of VRA following the result of these trials. It also appears that local authorities will, in future, be unwilling to use VRA because of its unreliability.
A report on the abandonment of VRA by the DWP can be found at www.kable.co.uk/dwp-vra-software-10nov10.
The DWP has produced a research report (RR 716) Voice Risk Analysis Pilots: Perspectives from staff, claimants and potential claimants available at http://tinyurl.com/3xqwxty.
You can view information about the VRA local authority pilots in Housing Benefit Direct 83, available on the DWP website at www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/user-communications/.
You can obtain copies of this and all our factsheets by contacting Disability Alliance on 020 7247 8776 (this is not an advice line) or by fax on 020 7247 8765.
30 March 2011