Get Your Pension Guidance beta assessment
Service Standard assessment report Get Your Pension Guidance (Pension Wise Digital) 17/07/2024
Service Standard assessment report
Get Your Pension Guidance (Pension Wise Digital)
| Assessment date: | 17/07/2024 |
| Stage: | Beta |
| Result: | Green |
| Service provider: | Money and Pensions Service |
Previous assessment reports
Service description
This service aims to solve the problem of limited access to pension guidance by providing free, impartial access to individuals aged 50 and over with defined contribution pension pots. Initially available only via face-to-face or phone appointments, Pension Wise will now offer an online option, enhancing accessibility and flexibility. Users can access comprehensive guidance at their convenience, save and return to their sessions, and receive support from Pensions Guiders (via webchat), ensuring they understand their pension options. This digital expansion increases the service’s reach, accommodating users’ needs and preferences more effectively.
Service users
This service is for:
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Individuals aged 50 and over
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Those with defined contribution pension pots
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Users seeking free, impartial pension guidance
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Individuals needing to understand their pension options
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Those directed by pension providers under ‘Stronger Nudge to Pensions Guidance’ regulations
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Users preferring online guidance appointments for flexibility and convenience
Things the service team has done well:
1 Understand users and their needs
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The team demonstrated an impressive accumulation of user research activities throughout the private beta phase
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The team has carried out wide-ranging user research across the whole user journey including before and after the digital component
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The team has used a broad suite of research methods to develop a deep understanding of the users and the context in which they will use the service.
2 Solve a whole problem for users
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The team has capitalised on the links to the existing services and has ensured that the digital service has been well integrated into the existing services
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The team has identified and resolved major pain points for users
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The team has clearly demonstrated that users can get through the whole journey
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The team has utilised wider government research to improve the service for their users.
3 Provide a joined up experience across all channels
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The team showed that the relationship between the existing phone/in-person appointments and the PWD appointments had been carefully considered. The design and research work presented proved that the team had prioritised the users’ ability to move between channels.
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The emphasis of the ‘Help and support panel’ across the journey supports the ability for the user to take advantage of Webchat support or to directly book a 1:1 phone appointment at any time.
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The save-and-return functionality (requiring no account registration) was chosen to reduce friction and increase access for users but also, importantly, allows an advisor to replicate a digital appointment during a 1:1 phone call.
4 Make the service simple to use
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Effective use of well established GDS design components and patterns. For example the Task List and Tags on the main appointment page giving a clear indication of the scale of the task ahead of the user. Also, the team followed the ‘one thing per page’ approach during any transactional/form-driven parts of the service, reducing the cognitive burden on the user.
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The team showed that they have completed several research/design iterations to great effect on the more complex pages, such as the ‘appointment summary’.
5 Make sure everyone can use the service
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Detailed accessibility testing was described as an integrated part of regular usability testing. An external accessibility audit was completed and issues resolved.
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Research participants were included from a broad range of demographics, geographies and levels of digital confidence.
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Welsh language content design and testing was given special attention and there was evidence of some excellent work in this area.
6 and 7 Have a multidisciplinary team and use agile ways of working
- The team were clearly a tight unit who are working together well and using best practice to support. The panel were very impressed with the culture that came across during the assessment.
10 Define what success looks like and publish performance data
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The team has carried out a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and ensured personally identifiable information (PII) is not being collected.
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The team has developed a performance framework and identified a range of success metrics derived from high-level aims of the service, which they are now collecting.
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The team gave good examples demonstrating how they had used data to improve the service.
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The team are benchmarking the new digital service against existing channels.
For the technical points (9, 11-14)
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The team has kept the architecture simple and minimal to suit the performance and reliability needs of the service.
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The team has automated the process for vetting and publishing code in the open to allow the service code to be reused by other government services.
1. Understand users and their needs
Decision
The service was rated green for point 1 of the Standard.
2. Solve a whole problem for users
Decision
The service was rated green for point 2 of the Standard.
3. Provide a joined-up experience across all channels
Decision
The service was rated green for point 3 of the Standard.
4. Make the service simple to use
Decision
The service was rated green for point 4 of the Standard.
5. Make sure everyone can use the service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 5 of the Standard.
6. Have a multidisciplinary team
Decision
The service was rated green for point 6 of the Standard.
7. Use agile ways of working
Decision
The service was rated green for point 7 of the Standard.
8. Iterate and improve frequently
Decision
The service was rated green for point 8 of the Standard.
9. Create a secure service which protects users’ privacy
Decision
The service was rated green for point 9 of the Standard.
10. Define what success looks like and publish performance data
Decision
The service was rated green for point 10 of the Standard.
11. Choose the right tools and technology
Decision
The service was rated green for point 11 of the Standard.
12. Make new source code open
Decision
The service was rated green for point 12 of the Standard.
13. Use and contribute to open standards, common components and patterns
Decision
The service was rated green for point 13 of the Standard.
14. Operate a reliable service
Decision
The service was rated green for point 14 of the Standard.
Next Steps
This service can now move into a public beta phase, subject to getting approval from the CDDO spend control team.
This service now has permission to launch on a GOV.UK service domain with a beta banner. These instructions explain how to set up your *.service.gov.uk domain.
The service must pass a live assessment before:
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turning off a legacy service
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reducing the team’s resources to a ‘business as usual’ level, or
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removing the ‘beta’ banner from the service