Impact Assessments
Improved change of circumstances and enquiries process (disability) – August 2007
The objective is to improve the State Pension / Pension Credit change of circumstances and enquiries process as part of Pensions Transformation Programme (PTP).
The Main Activities:
- For changes in circumstance taken over the phone customers will not be required to send in written confirmation.
- Customers will only have to speak to one advisor to make an enquiry or report a change of circumstance.
- Customers and their representatives' needs and preferences will be captured and retained on the Customer Account Management system (CAM) when a customer or their representative makes contact and 'discussion still required' is highlighted.
- The customer advisor will automatically be made aware of previously stated additional communication needs.
- Customers will automatically receive CAM generated large print outputs where the need has been identified.
- Customer materials will be automatically issued in Braille when the need has been identified.
- Informal representatives will be able to report changes as long as they answer security questions based on the customer data (unless they are reporting the death of the customer when the change will be taken even if they fail security questions).
- Written confirmation of the change and details of who reported it will be sent to the customer, unless the rep is reporting the death of the customer. In this case the letter will be sent to the person dealing with the estate or next of kin.
- Contact history will record the name, telephone number and the type of representative.
- Data about the representative will be held in contact history (permanently) and the Informal Rep view (temporarily) until capture of new informal rep details.
- We will not ask for customer’s signature on case reviews but simply issue a statement of details when the review is completed over the telephone.
- Letters sent to customers will have an additional paragraph explaining about alternative formats.
- PC2 (review form) will also ask about customer additional communication needs.
Evidence and Consultation
Changes were tested with various customer groups and the conclusion is that there will be no adverse or disproportionate impact. There will be a positive impact on customers with disabilities as once their needs have been recorded they will no longer be asked this on every further contact and as such they will benefit from an improved customer experience. Large print for changes of circumstances output now falls in line with the State Pension/Pension Credit claim process and can be issued direct from the CAM.
PTP also consulted with customers and their representatives to gain customer insight into the design of the new claims process through the Partnership Against Poverty Groups, and the DWP Policy and Strategy Forum.
Impact
This screening stage of an Impact Assessment has identified that there is no direct or indirect adverse impact upon customers with disabilities and that there is no evidence of any disproportionate effect as a result of these changes. In addition opportunities to improve services for our customers have been exploited and the changes support a long-term plan to take these improvements further.
Monitoring
The impact of these changes will be monitored through customer survey and mystery shopping and results published through the annual report of The Pension Service.