We made a new commitment to New Zealanders
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We want to improve client experiences and our service culture – failure to do so can have an impact on people’s trust and confidence in the welfare system. We took several important steps along this path this year.
Enhancing our digital capability
We responded to changing public expectations by making more use of technology and innovation to enable people to directly access services wherever possible, and by delivering services more efficiently. This means we now have more time to get to understand the needs of people who ask us for support, and to provide better services to people who require a greater level of interaction.
The MyMSD app is a key part of our efforts to improve client experience. It enables people to access financial help (eg with food or school start-up costs), find information, book and manage appointments, and update their details themselves – at a time and place that is convenient to them, without needing to travel to one of our service centres.
More people are doing more things online
In 2017/2018 the proportion of:
- our clients who signed up for MyMSD increased from 65 percent to around 75 percent
- benefit applications lodged online increased from around 45 percent to around 55 percent
- 52-week reapplications lodged online increased from around 14 percent at July 2017 to around 30 percent
- medical certificates lodged online increased from around 42 percent to over 93 percent, which saves around 1,200 people a day from having to hand-deliver or post a certificate to their local Work and Income office.
More than 200,000 people registered for MyMSD, bringing the total number of registrations to over 578,000.
We also moved most payments letters online into MyMSD, so now we only post letters if a person specifically asks us to.
Improving access to information and support
Sometimes it’s not easy for people to know what help is available to them, so in June 2018 we launched our
Check what you might get [32] service eligibility guide. The guide provides clear and transparent information about the financial assistance people might be able to get.
In the first month since its launch, over 50,000 sessions of the guide were started by almost 40,000 individual visitors. Initial reactions have been positive, with comments on the helpfulness of the information, ease of use, and accessibility for those with screen readers.
We continued to review our letters to make sure the recipient fully understands what they need to do. We know some of our letters can be unclear, filled with too much information and lacking in explanation and empathy. They also contain jargon that might mean something to us but that makes it harder for clients to understand what we tell them. We know we can do better, and we have taken action to do so. Our Better Letters project is under way, improving the information we send people to help them understand what they need to do.
Creating a warm and welcoming environment in our service centres
A key part of improving service culture is to understand the experience people have when they visit our service centres. In April 2018 we hosted co-design workshops with our employees, clients and external stakeholders to ensure we have good universal access standards for accessible facilities in all our offices. Stakeholders such as Blind Citizens New Zealand, Kapo Māori, Wellbeing Wellington, Deaf Aotearoa, Autism Community, Age Concern and the Office for Disability Issues contributed to the workshops.
As a result we developed the new front-of-house design that will be rolled out nationwide over the next five years as part of a major project to enhance the physical design of all our site offices.
New Plymouth's front-of-house concept site
On 26 June 2018 the Minister for Social Development, Hon Carmel Sepuloni (pictured above, standing), launched our Client Commitment, the Check what you might get online eligibility guide, and the front-of-house pilot at the New Plymouth Service Centre. As the Minister remarked at the launch, "...it isn't easy to ask for help, but creating a friendlier, warmer environment helps. Giving people more privacy, with a space that's welcoming and inclusive for everyone, and creating a child-friendly zone for children to learn and play, is important."
- a more inviting space for people
- an easier way for them to find their way around
- a child-friendly zone for children to learn and play
- different furniture options
- water coolers
- more privacy
- new signs that will make it clearer for visitors that bathrooms are available.
Pilots also started in the Flaxmere, Willis Street (Wellington) and Rotorua Service Centres during that week.
Rethinking how we make decisions to suspend benefits
We have reviewed the way we make decisions to suspend benefits, so that we are sure we do not stop payments unless we really need to. In May 2018 we introduced clearer guidelines to support our people in deciding whether or not to suspend benefits where other options are available.
This change intends to adjust and strengthen the processes behind the decision to stop a payment, and ensure the decision is fair and reasonable.
Staff gave positive feedback on the guidelines, and early indications are that there has been a slight reduction in suspension actions for discretionary reasons.
A new process for managing and responding to complaints
In March 2018 we launched a project to review current processes for managing complaints from clients. We want to adopt a single, consistent approach to receiving and managing feedback from clients that will empower people to express their views about our services and products. This feedback will help us understand people’s experience and how we can make improvements in our service.
Footnote
[32] Check what you might get on the Work and Income website.
