Apply for New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance
The report for the Apply for New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance beta assessment on 24 June 2020
Digital Service Standard assessment report
Apply for New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance
| From: | Government Digital Service (GDS) |
| Assessment date: | 24/06/2020 |
| Stage: | Beta Assessment |
| Result: | Met |
| Service provider: | The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) |
Service description
Enables citizens to make an online claim for contributions based New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance and enables internal DWP users to view claim details, make updates and progress the claim.
Service users
Users Groups
Primary users (citizens):
- Working-age citizens who are out of work and want to claim New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance
Secondary users:
- Contact centre agents (G4S) who book Jobcentre appointments and take assisted digital claims
- Work coaches
- Benefit Processors
1. Understand user needs
Decision
The service met point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- through ongoing research the team has been able to identify the level of support needed for users that fall in the assisted digital spectrum. There is a support number in place for users to call for applications to be made via telephone
- the team put clear messaging in place in the service to ensure better understanding and user experience
- the team has been able to include users that are likely to be less familiar with the benefits system, for example users that are going through redundancy
- some user pain points addressed for example the payment journey moved forward within the service journey. Also the team is continuing to capture user behaviour in this area
- evidence based personas clearly distinguishing the user types, needs and barriers
- the team has been able to demonstrate that a number of methodologies have been used to uncover user needs and research has been inclusive by ensuring that a diverse range of users are included in interviews and user testing
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- have better clarity still for users between choosing New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance and Universal Credit or both. It is recommended that the team test scenarios around how people find the service and then make the informed choice for both or one
- ensure that feedback is gathered on an ongoing basis from users that fall in the assisted digital spectrum. Users that are not completing the online journey themselves and are coming into the service through support from friends, family or contact centre. This feedback will help in making iterations that further simplifies user journey and allowing users to self serve
2. Do ongoing user research
Decision
The service met point 2 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has a long term road map in place to support users on an ongoing basis
- there are processes in place to gather ongoing feedback from users that have completed the online journey
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- ensure there is ongoing testing with users who use assistive tools to go online, users that are less familiar with the benefits system and users that fall on the lower end of the assisted digital spectrum
3. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service met point 3 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- a full multidisciplinary team with suitable skills was in place
- the service team was predominantly permanent civil servants
- knowledge transfer had been appropriately handled when a switch from suppliers to permanent staff happened
- the service team continues to evolve in its shape to deliver more effectively
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- have plans for a suitably sized and shaped teams are in place at the transition to ‘live’ to continue to develop features and improve the service
- consider what further support and escalation routes can be utilised for decisions outside of the immediate control of the team, this concern is prompted by the name of the service ‘New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance’. Although the benefit is referred to as ‘New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance’ in legislation, the name of the service can still be descriptive to mitigate the risk that citizens entitled to the service are confused. The service team needs appropriate support in this regard
4. Use agile methods
Decision
The service met point 4 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service is delivered in a regular cadence with appropriate tools and ceremonies to support early and continuous delivery
- the team has remained coherent and able to deliver whilst dispersed, a situation further entrenched by the need for everyone to work remotely
- the service continues to demonstrate an ability to respond to unforeseen circumstances with major changes at short notice, all to the benefit of end users
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- improve processes for signing-off changes. There is an indisputable need to coordinate changes and ensure business processes are not broken by changes. There may be scope to reduce this impact by categorising the types of changes that require more formal processes and advance view of upcoming changes on the backlog
5. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service met point 5 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service team has continued to iterate on several aspects of the service, including in response to COVID-19 challenges, to improve the journey and experience for users
- robust practices were in place to inform iteration, including the use of data, feedback and specific research
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to collaborate with colleagues in policy, content and Universal Credit to improve users ability to find and apply to the benefits they are eligible for and easily navigate through the service without ambiguity or need to understand DWP’s terminology
6. Evaluate tools and systems
Decision
The service met point 6 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the languages, tools, and system in use is well supported by the departmental technology services
- monitoring is solid and most of the service is managed by in-house teams that have been set up to be dependable
- the service has a very solid deployment pipeline
- the service uses a technology stack that is well supported in the department
- the service technology provides good value for money
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- the department has the adequate technology strategy in place to keep supporting the service throughout its lifecycle
7. Understand security and privacy issues
Decision
The service met point 7 of the Standard
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service was thoroughly assessed for security issues
- there is an ongoing plan to manage its security within existing corporate security services
- spot checks and ongoing long-term security management plan
8. Make all new source code open
Decision
The service met point 8 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the micro-service is designed to promote component re-use and all New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance repositories are shared on a common DWP wide Gitlab
-
although this is a separate process for internal integration, the publication of open source code on GitHub follows a sound approach:
-
Office Search: https://github.com/dwp/nsjsa-office-search-service
-
Change of circumstances service: https://github.com/dwp/nsjsa-circumstancesservice
-
Common library used by microservice: https://github.com/dwp/nsjsa-commons
-
- there is a solid process to opening up source code
- the choice of license was thoroughly investigated
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- consider if the internal integration of code on GitLab could be better integrated with the GitHub publication
- be more explicit about whether the code in use is the same as the open sourced version
9. Use open standards and common platforms
Decision
The service met point 9 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service uses common platforms such as GOV.UK Notify
- the service uses a cloud-first approach with configuration management tools that are resilient, widely used and supported (Terraform, Puppet)
10. Test the end-to-end service
Decision
The service met point 10 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- testing was put in place regardless of the time constraints
- the team adopts and deploys modern CD/CI practices
11. Make a plan for being offline
Decision
The service met point 11 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service is well protected and has built-in resilience checks
- the service operates on AWS effectively making use of AWS monitoring
- management of incidents resulting in offline is through the standard DWP process applied for any Priority 1 (highest impacting) incident
- there is robust planned service maintenance through the DWP standard Change and Release process, stakeholders are consulted before any down time
- all changes are managed via TechNow
- maintenance pages are presented to citizens to inform them of planned down time
- regression plans and regular database snapshots are used to ensure quick recovery of the service and the data
- a business continuity plan for unplanned periods of downtime, which would result in DWP agents reverting to clerical processing of claims, and telephony via G4S and paper forms for new applications during any lengthy period of unplanned downtime
12: Make sure users succeed first time
Decision
The service met point 12 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has continued to iterate the service despite having to go ‘live’ much earlier and with much larger volumes than planned
- the team made good use of analytics to inform design decisions and make incremental usability improvements in a short space of time
- the online application takes 13 minutes to complete on average, down from more than 30 minutes in the previous service
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- address the organisational problems that stop the team being in control of design decisions about their service. For example the service name, ‘Apply for New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance’ reflects how DWP thinks about the service more than how users think of it. Whilst it’s clear that the team has challenged this, the fact that other parts of the department could overrule the team’s attempts to rename its own service raises concerns about the team’s future autonomy
- make the eligibility criteria less ambiguous. Phrasing like “Based on your answers, you may not be eligible for New Style Jobseeker’s Allowance” could cause some users to continue to apply for something they aren’t eligible for, wasting their time and government’s time. As with the previous point, the team has challenged this without success – they need to be able to influence key design decisions such as this
- continue to collaborate with colleagues in policy, content and Universal Credit to improve users ability to find and apply to the benefits they are eligible for and easily navigate through the service without ambiguity or need to understand DWPs terminology
13. Make the user experience consistent with GOV.UK
Decision
The service met point 13 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service is consistent with GOV.UK styles and patterns, and uses GOV.UK Frontend
- the team recently conducted an accessibility audit and plans to address the issues found in the next month
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- do a lot more usability testing with users of assistive technology, the seven sessions so far isn’t enough to provide the level of confidence for all users of a service of this scale
- carry out and share a full accessibility audit before live assessment
14. Encourage everyone to use the digital service
Decision
The service met point 14 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the service already has an outstanding take up rate (94%) whilst robust assisted digital support was in place
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to research with people with support needs, and organisations that provide support to ensure that potential pressures on informal support that might impact take up if lost, is not missed
15. Collect performance data
Decision
The service met point 15 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team used analytics and user feedback to identify areas of poor performance throughout the service journey
- the team actively uses a hypothesis driven approach to iterate the service using evidence and are able to measure improvements. It was evident that the team worked collaboratively across disciplines to use data and performance analytics in their work
- the team acted upon recommendation from the alpha assessment and used analytics, user feedback and user research to understand how users found the service and have identified problem areas. They should continue their work with the GOV.UK team to improve this
- the team has considered privacy and consent of data appropriately. For example, Google Analytics was not used after December 2019 until a cookie consent opt in model could be introduced
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- measure and analyse how the assisted digital area of the service is performing. The team has done some thinking in this area and there are plans to implement tracking but this needs to be in place in order to understand how effective this route works for users
16. Identify performance indicators
Decision
The service met point 16 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team identified relevant KPIs beyond the mandatory four and could explain methodology and data sources
- the team is using the satisfaction score with other metrics and KPIs to measure changes to the service
- service performance has been benchmarked against the legacy service
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- work on the methodology of cost per transaction. The team was able to point to the savings made on the service compared to the legacy service. Creating a cost per transaction metric will mean that this saving could be placed in context with other services
17. Report performance data on the Performance Platform
Decision
The service met point 17 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team identified appropriate KPIs and have an existing dashboard
- the team has contacted the Performance Platform to agree measures
- the team will continue to report on the existing dashboard
18. Test with the minister
Decision
The service met point 18 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- whilst the service has not been directly tested with the minister, regular engagement with the Senior Responsible Owner and other senior stakeholders has continued, ensuring that senior accountability and understanding of the service has been maintained