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National Audit Office Report - Department for Work and Pensions: Communicating with customers (7 May 2009)

Background

The Committee of Public Accounts reported on government forms in 2004 and recommended changes that Departments should make to make forms easier to understand. Recommendations included:

• keeping forms as short as possible
• redesigning forms where necessary
• providing concise guidance notes
• ensuring that the requirements of customers with specific needs are met
• making a commitment to the Government's then 2005 deadline for the online provision of all forms

The report

The findings of the report were based on an examination of jobseeker's allowance, pension credit and attendance allowance leaflets and services.

Leaflets and forms

This report finds that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has made progress in reducing the number of leaflets that it produces for its customers and in making application forms simpler, shorter and easier to read.

Some forms are still unnecessarily long and guidance notes are complicated. The DWP's computer generated letters are also too long and confusing for customers.

Phone services

The DWP has also promoted the use of phone calls for both enquiries about benefits and benefit claims to reduce dependence on paper forms and leaflets. Customers can now apply for state pension, pension credit, council tax benefit and housing benefit all in one phone call.

Online information

There has also been progress in online provision. Job Point kiosks in Jobcentre Plus offices give customers access to the job vacancies listed on the Jobcentre Plus website. However these do not allow the same facilities for online job searches or making online job applications as internet access.

The DWP has taken over responsibility for running www.direct.gov.uk has now put content for customers from the older websites for Jobcentre Plus, the Pension, Disability and Carers Service and the Department headquarters onto the Directgov website, although there is still work to do to make material from the different websites consistent with Directgov's standards.

The Jobcentre Plus website will remain open until 2010, but the DWP is in the process of directing customers to use these Directgov pages in the first instance.

In the transition period there is a mix of different pages, and our experiments show that finding information in some important areas can be difficult.

Online claims

There is still progress to be made in moving services online but the DWP plans to implement full online applications as an alternative to the paper form or telephone interview, initially for contributory jobseeker's allowance, from summer 2009 rather than February 2010 as originally planned.

At present it is possible to claim attendance allowance online, but not pension credit. at the moment, the primary route for pension credit applications is by telephone to contact centres.

Problems with attendance allowance

Attendance allowance (AA) is complex and not easy to understand, which may mean it is not reaching some of the people who need it. Take-up of AA is lower than for other benefits. The report found that 42 per cent of people were unable to find out from official websites what the eligibility criteria for attendance allowance are, and it took those users who found them a long time to do so. The name is widely misunderstood by older people as requiring them to attend an old people's centre.

In 2003 by the Commission for Social Care Inspection estimated that around 40-60 per cent of those eligible to claim actually claimed attendance allowance. The DWP does not have an accurate measure of take-up so has not set a target for what the take-up rate should be, or used specific communications campaigns to actively drive take-up. The Department plans to carry out further research on awareness of AA.

Recommendations

• As the DWP expands its online services it should review the need for the paper form and supplementary printed guidance.
• Once the online jobseeker's allowance system is operational and has been tested it should be marketed vigorously so that around 40 per cent online applications should be achievable by 2011.
• Where forms are required the DWP needs to ask for the required information as simply as possible, and in the same way as the online process.
• For many benefits, paper forms are likely to remain the main means of communication for many years, and the Department should review these forms by considering what questions are irrelevant for the majority of claimants, and separate these questions into supplementary sub-forms issued only where individual's circumstances require it.
• The DWP should strengthen the Communications Directorate's formal advisory role to advise on all stages of information exchange for all benefits.
• As use of the Directgov site increases, the Department will need to keep under review the way information about benefits is presented so that it meets the Department should examine system generated letters to test whether similar improvements can be made.
• Elderly people may be discouraged from claiming pension credit because of the need to send documents. There is a network of local charity and public sector offices willing to check documents but customer awareness of this service is low. The Department should investigate the extent of demand for this service, and whether investing in this network to increase capacity would offer value for money.

More information

• department for work and pensions: communicating with customers - NAO website

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