Apply online for new style employment and support allowance alpha reassessment report
The report for the Department for Work and Pension's apply online for new style employment and support allowance alpha reassessment on 24th May 2019.
| From: | Government Digital Service (GDS) |
| Assessment date: | 24 May 2019 |
| Stage: | Alpha |
| Result: | Met |
| Service provider: | Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) |
Previous assessment reports
Service description
This service aims to solve the problem of citizens securely submitting an application for New Style Employment and Support Allowance. This information will be used to populate the payment system JSAPs (using an automated robotic process). A DWP agent (work coach) will interview the citizen to confirm their identity and agree a claimant commitment with them.
Service users
This service is for citizens who are unable to work due to illness or injury and who have paid sufficient national insurance contributions in the relevant two tax years prior to their claim.
1. Understand user needs
Decision
The service met point 1 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
- the team has conducted a substantial amount of research with different users groups - this includes citizens who are very similar to the target audience (for example, those who have completed the current paper form recently) as well as third party supporters/influencers and DWP staff
- the team has looked closely at their users and explored a variety of different contexts of use, for example, completion at home.
- in particular, the team has explored the potential impact of different types of illness, and concluded that it is not helpful to generalise based on illness.
- the team has drawn on statistics, form completion data, observations and interviews to think about their audiences carefully and has now developed a simple model which shows how users approach this benefit at a point of need
- in particular the team has looked at cognitive, behavioural and emotional needs in respect of the service and how these relate to support and content requirements
- the panel was pleased to see a thoughtful evaluation of digital inclusion in relation to the service.
What the team needs to explore
- iterate the minimum viable product (MVP) in the realistic context of private beta
- continue to build their in-depth understanding of users and how they become aware of the benefit
- expand to include users who represent less common scenarios once user research shows users are succeeding in those specific journeys
2. Do ongoing user research
Decision
The service met point 2 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
- the team has tested their work with different types of user (work coaches, potential applicants, third parties) in a variety of different contexts, and so has made a realistic evaluation of their service
- the team has tested flow, order, and question type, iterating to come up with robust designs that support good levels of completion from users
- the team has used data to inform their decision to focus on certain journeys, and to help them to eliminate questions which are likely to see low volumes of response. Insight has been used to inform content and design development, including the development of a question flow that minimises the potential negative impact of some mandatory questions
- The panel were impressed that the team has considered the question of awareness for this benefit, and has used short interviews to further explore the problem.
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- explore form submission and post-submission confirmation needs. The team commented that their users were ‘instinctively making a record’ of information required for the next interview - the panel suggests testing this in detail, as there is a risk that in an unsupported journey, users would become anxious that their information had not been submitted, leading them to call DWP to check
- create, test and iterate the entire end-to-end journey, to include the steps which happen between form submission and attending an appointment.
- define clear performance metrics (such as ease of use) based on good user experience that will support users to succeed
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 team created their own data on common and uncommon user journeys using a sample of paper applications they analysed.
- the team intends to focus the user groups invited to the private beta and prioritise improvements based on their understanding of common journeys.
- the team has reduced scope by focusing on the user-facing service and plans to build back-office process automation at a later point in beta.
- the team prototyped a number of designs to test assumptions about user navigation.
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the team planned to track metrics to help identify opportunities for improvement during private beta. The service owner anticipates tracking:
- percentage of private beta participants verses number invited
- percentage of private beta participants that drop out
- percentage of private beta participants succeed using the digital service without support
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to
- the team should continue to explore design options to show what’s possible and challenge constraints they currently face.
- where suitable, the team should test a range of designs and anti-patterns to draw out insights about users and validate a preferred design.
- for the end-to-end journey, the team should understand user pain points and ensure these are tackled as part of their improvement work in beta.
- understand the metrics they are using to demonstrate the service’s improvement and success - visualising them on a performance dashboard for the team may help
12: Make sure users succeed first time
Decision
The team met point 12 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel were impressed that the team has
- identified an existing, paper-based, part of the employment and support allowance application process which has significant opportunity to be faster and easier for users if they can complete it online
- a long-term vision for moving the burden of navigating the health benefits system from the user to the organisation
- iterated wording, order and format of questions where user research has shown them to cause problems, and in some cases they’ve been able to remove questions.
- additionally, been able to remove these questions from the paper form
- a plan to make sure that only users whose circumstances make them most likely to be able to complete the application first time are included in private beta scope
What the team needs to do explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- show evidence of changes that cut across the design of the initial email, telephony script and digital service, making sure that the user’s experience of the service is coherent and consistent
- consider a save and return feature if data shows that users are timing out on particular questions
- continue to iterate the pensions and financial products questions and prove they work with real users before bringing these users into the scope of the beta service