In January 2016, The Behavioural & Customer Insight Team published a report concerning research into a Juvenile National Insurance (NI) Number ‘call to action’ communication to encourage use of a digital service to set up a young person’s digital account.
Who are the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT)?
They are a social purpose company, jointly owned by the UK Government; Nesta (the innovation charity); and their employees. BIT started life inside 10 Downing Street as the world’s first government institution dedicated to the application of behavioural sciences.
Their objectives are:
making public services more cost-effective and easier for citizens to use; improving outcomes by introducing a more realistic model of human behaviour to policy; and wherever possible, enabling people to make ‘better choices for themselves’So, the report.
As most readers will be aware, the government is committed to reducing burdens for taxpayers and building a transparent and accessible tax system fit for the digital age. To support this aim HMRC is looking to transition many of its processes online, including National Insurance (NI) number registration. Currently most people are automatically given a number as they approach age 16.
When a claim to Child Benefit is made, the young person is allocated a Child Reference Number (CRN) and when that young person reaches 15 years 9 months, HMRC is able to issue them a NI number notification letter. However, the current process generates a high volume of additional correspondence. It is hoped that offering customers the ability to manage their tax affairs via an online personal tax account will reduce this kind of low value contact going forward and encourage future engagement with other Government digital services.
Under the proposed new NI number registration process HMRC will issue a ‘call to action’ letter to all recipients of Child Benefit asking them to set up or log into their own digital account. They will be required to verify their child’s details, which would trigger an electronic communication to the child to register to receive their NI number digitally. Customers unable or unwilling to opt into the digital process will revert to the existing process.
HMRC wished to receive feedback from Child Benefit recipients (i.e. parents and guardians), whose child is aged 14 or 15, about what information the ‘call to action’ letter should contain, the way it should be presented and understand likely action that parents would take on receipt of the letter. Specifically, the project was designed to understand:
Comprehension of the call to action letter: the level of comprehension across the target population, their level of understanding of how the new process works in principle and how this differs by sub-group, recommendations on how the letter could be improved; Actions customers are likely to take on receiving the letter: is the message persuasive enough to encourage positive behaviour, is it clear what they need to do to opt in, will they seek clarification from HMRC and if so on what and how. The positive impact of the call to action letter: what encourages customers to opt in, what are the perceived benefits; and Issues associated with not opting in: the barriers to uptake, the most effective ways of overcoming these barriers, the perceived drawbacks and actions HMRC could take to encourage or facilitate opting in.This recently released report gives the findings of the BIT and is a very useful insight into one of the many issues being faced by HMRC’s digitalisation team
