You read it here first …
As the election nears politicians of all parties are being pressed to come up with new policies. Here is a simple, cost-effective, socially inclusive, modernising one they can all have for free.
The Government has been pretty successful in getting more of us to fill in our tax returns online. I think the figure for 2008/9 returns was over seventy percent. By contrast, only about one percent of claimants go online to claim the Job Seeker’s Allowance. Yet with nearly all families with children now on line and with the excellent work of UK OnLine Centres in providing digital access (both the computers and the hands-on guidance) there is no reason why the gap should be so great.
I am told that there is a plan to simplify and re-launch digital JSA forms in the summer. This will no doubt do some good but my idea would lead to a transformative shift.
Any claimant who moves online with their claim and who commits to continuing to transact in this way should be given a £30 online shopping voucher. The Government would pay £15 and retailers would make up the rest (claimants could choose between vouchers for various supermarkets or other participating shops). Some may object to this handout, but right now, as we emerge from recession, public opinion is tending to be sympathetic to those out of work.
For the Government the £15 cost would be substantially less than the savings in staff time and paperwork. For the retailers, they would show their corporate responsibility and open up the online shopping market to a new group of consumers. And for claimants their lives would be easier, they would get a free bag of shopping and by picking up online skills they would improve their employability and access to other services. A scheme like this could realistically aim for 50% of existing claimants and 90% of new claimants to be online within three months.
So there we are: a way of saving money, promoting social inclusion and contributing to the vision of digital Britain. Don’t be surprised to read it in a manifesto very soon.
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Comments
6 Comments on You read it here first …
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alex on
Mon, 1st Mar 2010 6:17 pm
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Marian Forkin on
Mon, 1st Mar 2010 7:13 pm
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Livy on
Tue, 2nd Mar 2010 2:19 am
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rob on
Tue, 2nd Mar 2010 7:01 am
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Will on
Wed, 3rd Mar 2010 2:08 pm
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Rob on
Tue, 9th Mar 2010 4:13 pm
Matthew
We have been working on this for a year, as there is no way that DWP will commission this work. It would be turkeys voting for Christmas.
Our pensioners and other users in this country want us to do it for all transactions with government. At the moment, our average user has to fill in 67 forms a year.
Even after Varney in 2005, we still have to tell government 40 times that we are dead as well.
Will innovation ever see its day in the recession ?
Let us know if you want to come and test the applications
totally sensible. please set up a party, stand for election and let me, (and no doubt thousands of others), vote for you. thanks!
I can just imagine how that would play.
“Labour rewards benefit cheats” on the front page of the Mail. It would look like running to the base or even bribing (the electorally active) white, working class, disaffected core voters not to stay home or go BNP. Whether you do it or only appear to do it, it will be committed to the celluloid of public perception and the rewards are debatable. It’s the reason Cameron flip-flopped on spending cuts and the marriage tax allowance, and has so far resisted calls from from his right to talk about immigration.
Not bad, though. Actually I think the Japanese government did something similar to this during their recession in the late 90s to resuscitate consumer spending, but they issued higher value vouchers that had to be accepted on the high street. I mean, if we’re going to print funny money let’s at least put it in people’s pockets so they can get some new Jimmy Choos and not onto theoretical balance sheets.
This is attempting to shift individual behaviour. The thing is, like so much else in this country we do things for no reason other than the fact that we always have. Europeans find it funny that in this day and age we still have two taps for hot and cold water on every sink instead of using a mixer device. Same deal with three pin electrical plugs.
Queues at the bank are ridiculously long and largely unnecessary; most of those time-wasters aren’t paying in cheques, they’re holding up everybody else with simple transactions that can be done online. Almost as unpleasant as going to the post office. That’s why I’ve never understood that expression, ‘laughing all the way to the bank’…I’ve never seen it.
Besides, government aren’t the only ones with good answers. Last year when fears of a full blown depression were very very real, I read in the American press about about small towns in the mid west where local businesses were offering services completely free of charge to people who had been made redundant. Barber shops were doing free haircuts and dry cleaners were pressing shirts and cleaning suits for people preparing for job interviews. Even more inspiring was the fact that there was very little abuse of that honour system.
Livy
Most people who pay tax are maybe educated to A level or even degree level
Most people who claim JSA are not necessarily degree holders or highly paid and able to afford a computer or to go on-line
People who pay tax can maybe afford a computer at home
People on JSA may be leading chaotic lives
Claiming benefits ought to be a one-step process. Tell the internet your issues, it goes away and calculates, and your bank is credited ( or your mobile phone in Africa ). The system could be more intelligent, and the time to serve minutes rather than days
It needs more trust and devolved local powers to the claimant
Matthew,
Although I think this proposal would do no harm, I think you’re over-estimating its potential. Our charity Community Links works with unemployed people in East London all the time.
A couple of years ago we discovered that 70% of forms submitted to the local jobcentre were rejected because they were filled in incorrectly. We put volunteers in there to help people (most of whom spoke English as a second language, or had literacy problems) fill in the forms. Rejection rate fell to 1%, saving over a year of staff time.
Online forms would be a great solution for many (I agree we could aim much higher than the current 2%), but they shouldn’t become a substitute for the personal, face-to-face support that can really change some people’s lives.
I am one of the 2% who did claim on line! It’s not very (not at all?) signposted & a little clunky, but it does work OK.
Will, your points entirely correct, but getting at least part of input online makes it easier to validate e.g. correct address/postcode (so any correspondence has a fighting chance of arriving), while careful use of Google Translate or similar browser extensions could ease things for some ESL.
Having said that, DWP use of tech is still lamentable. It was months before I found out there was official, free DWP support over LinkedIn.com & the jobsearch machines still basically do not work. I am looking for an internal DWP contact for a constructive exchange on this: frontline staff freely admit the tech limitations but seem to have given up hope of improvement.
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