HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

COMMUNITY SAFETY AND CULTURE CABINET PANEL

THURSDAY 29 APRIL 2010at2.00 P.M.

TELL US ONCE PROGRAMME.

Report of the Head of Statutory Services

Author: Steve CharterisTel: 01707 897375

Executive Member: Keith Emsall.

1.Purpose of the Report

1.1To provide information to the panel on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Tell Us Once programme and consider the implications for Hertfordshire.

2.Summary

2.1 Tell Us Once is a national programme which is being led by the DWP on behalf of the Government as a whole, to transform the way in which people tell central and local government about changes to their circumstances. It is a process by which people can tell the Government only once about a birth or death and this information is then passed on their behalf to relevant government departments.

3.Recommendation

3.1The Panel is asked tonote the report and comment on the implementation of Tell Us Once in Hertfordshire.

4.Background

4.1The Tell Us Once Programme arose from a recommendation in the report by Sir David Varney – Service Transformation: a better service for citizens and businesses, a better deal for the taxpayer – which found that people often hadto provide the same information to different government departments whennotifying it of a change in their circumstances. It concluded that citizens,taxpayers and Government could benefit from the provision of a joined up notification service provided through a single point of contact, particularly ifthose changes were to do with reporting a death, a birth or a change ofaddress.

4.2Tell Us Once joins up Government for citizens and allows them to inform Government just once of changes in their circumstances such as a birth or a death. This information is then passed electronically to central, county and district government departments thus reducing the need for the customer to contact government repeatedly with the same information.

4.3Tell Us Once has been piloted in 15 local authorities since 2008 and as at 31 August 2009 has been used by more than 15,000 people with take up rates in the established sites reaching 90%+. Surveys show overwhelming support (97%+) for the service from both customers and staff and one of the key findings is a reduction of seven designed unavoidable contacts for reporting a death and two for birth. The Case for Tell Us Once was agreed on 18 September 2009 and roll out of the service is scheduled to take place from April 2010 – March 2011. The national roll out of the Birth, Death and Bereavement elements of TUO was announced in The Prime Minister’s speech on Smarter Government on the 7 December 2009 to the Institute for Government.

4.4There are 24 core services that would be required to be notified in phase 1 (see below). However, the way authorities provide the Tell Us Once service and any additional related services, will be influenced by the demographics of the area and the local authority’s corporate aims. Notification can be extended to include voluntary services and other government departments.

DWP

• State Pension

• Pension Credit

• Attendance Allowance

• Disability Living Allowance

• Carer's Allowance

• Jobseeker’s Allowance

• Income Support

• Incapacity Benefit

• Bereavement Benefit

HMRC

• Working Tax Credit

• Child Benefit

• Child Tax Credit

IPS

• UK Passport

Local Authority

• Council Tax

• Council Housing

• Library Services

• Electoral Services

• Adult Care Services

• Children, Schools and Families

• Blue Badge

• Owe payment to council

Council benefits (administered on behalf of DWP)

• Housing Benefit

• Council Tax Benefit

DVLA

• Driving Licence

5.Benefits

5.1The citizen receives a better experience: faster, cheaper, with easier access to government services. There is less administration, reduced postage and call costs, improved information, faster claim processing and thus customer satisfaction. There are also reduced incidents of deceased ID theft.

5.2There are benefits to Government and taxpayers through faster service delivery, joined-up systems, easier verification, less duplication, and reduction in fraud, error and process times. There is potential for significant financial savings.

5.3The benefits for staff teams are greater job satisfaction as they are trained to deliver a personalised service to each customer; making a difference, feeling valued and adding more value.

5.4The pilots have shown:

• A reduction in designed contacts of 7 for reporting a death and 2 for birth.

• Take up rates for reporting a death are on average 56% but have reached 90%+ in established sites.

• Customer survey showed 98% of people trusted the service and 99.5% trusted the people delivering it.

• Staff survey showed that 98% of staff strongly agree/ agree that they are making a difference to people’s lives.

5.5Tell Us Once helps local authorities to meet a number of National Indicators, as well as targets outlined in the Service Transformation Agreements (STA), Public Service Agreements (PSA) and Departmental Strategic Objectives (DSO). Contributes to Local Area Agreements (LAAs) by improving performance inpriority areas and in specific National Indicators, such as:

• NI14: Reduced avoidable contacts by reducing duplication andimproving data quality.

• NI119: Self-reported measure of people’s overall health and well-being by allowing LAs to identify customer needs earlier.

• NI132 Timeliness of social care assessment by making LAs aware of customer needs more quickly.

• NI136: People supported to live independently by enabling faster provision of benefits and other services.

• NI139: Extent to which older people receive the support they need to live independently at home by allowing social care assessment to be carried out earlier.

• NI156: Reduced households in temporary accommodation by enabling LAs to refill empty housing faster.

• NI180: Changes in HB/CTB entitlements within the year by ensuring that correct amount is paid.

• NI181: Reduction in time taken to process claims for HB/CTB.

5.6The Tell Us Once service allows accurate and relevant information to be collected and shared with relevant local authority departments at an earlier stage than is currently the case. In general, the earlier the local authority is notified of a death, the more beneficial it is for both the local authority and the bereaved person. Having accurate and up to date records means that the correct follow up action can be taken by the local authority at as early a stage as possible and it also prevents inappropriate letters being sent out in error.

5.7This has a number of financial benefits to local authority. Overpayments of benefits are reduced, as are the costs associated with recovering that money and there is a reduction in the number of unavoidable contacts with the customer, on average by 4. There is also a reduction in processing and postage costs as Tell Us Once collects information, including next of kin details, which the local authority would normally have to request separately.

5.8In addition, while Tell Us Once does not change the way back office services operate, the pilot sites have found that by reviewing these they have been able to improve the way these are delivered and this has also resulted in savings. There are further benefits associated with each of the services that the information is shared with:

5.9Council Tax - Currently many Council Tax departments receive notification of death from the Registrar. However this notification relates to people who die in the borough only and not those who die and are registered elsewhere. They do not receive any information about the bereaved who may need their Council Tax liability reassessed.Tell Us Once allows information on the deceased and bereaved to be shared with the department so that it can take the appropriate action more quickly.

5.10Council Tax Benefit/Housing Benefit - Benefits can be suspended and/or reassessed more quickly, supporting National Indicators 180 and 181 which aim to ensure that claimants receive the correct amount of these benefits, promptly. A further financial benefit to councils is that any loss of subsidy from DWP for inaccurately paid benefit is reduced.

5.11Council housing - The earlier the notification of death is passed across to the Housing department, the sooner the tenancy can be re-examined and succession or reallocation action taken. This leads to a reduction in the lost income which arises when the house is empty. If the council house is reallocated to someone who was previously receiving Housing Benefit at the bed and breakfast rate, there is a significant reduction in the amount of Housing Benefit that is paid.

5.12Libraries - Advising libraries of a death at an early stage allows them to update their customer records and prevents letters being issued insensitively and fines building up for overdue books.

5.13Electoral Services - Early notification of a death can ensure that the Electoral Register contains up to date information, again reducing the likelihood of post being issued with the deceased person’s name on it.

5.14Adult and Children’s Services - The earlier they are notified of a death the quicker any equipment can be collected and reallocated, and/or an assessment carried out into what services are required by the bereaved family. The Child Safeguarding Board can be notified of a death by the service much quicker than would otherwise be the case.

5.15Blue Badges - Blue Badges can be cancelled and taken out of circulation more quickly thereby reducing their fraudulent use and consequent reduction in parking revenue to the local authority.

5.16Payments owing to local authorities - The local authority can take decisions on what to do with any outstanding payments at an earlier stage and prevent inappropriate recovery action. In the event of a death where no-one is prepared to take responsibility for the funeral or there is no next of kin, the local authority will arrange and pay for the funeral. Early notification through Tell Us Once can expedite this process.

6. Implementation in Hertfordshire.

6.1There were 8061 deaths and 12021 births registered in Hertfordshire in 2008/9 (financial year). This is consistent with average annual returns. Thus 20,000+ Hertfordshire citizens would be able to access and benefit from the service per annum.

6.2It is proposed that HCC Registration Service is the hub that collects the information from the bereaved and new parents as they are required by law to attend a registration office to register the event and therefore have statutory early contact with Government. Registration appointments are 30 minutes and it is estimated that the additional tasks associated with TUO will take 10 minutes per appointment. The DWP system is a web-based system which records details of the deceased and informant. The informant then identifies services which the deceased was receiving by way of a tick box. This information is than available for the specific departments to access.

6.3There have been discussions with HCC departments and the District Councils through Pathfinder and there is general support for the programme. TUO presents a good opportunity to improve the service the bereaved and new parents receive from government as a whole, promotes the joint working between different parts of government and offers opportunities for efficiency savings.

6.4TUO will be rolled out nationally from July 2010 and Hertfordshire has been identified to be part of the first national group of local authorities to offer the service, with a view to offering a live service in late October / early November 2010.

7.Financial Implications

7.1DWP conducted a costs benefit analysis of the programme and estimates are detailed below:

7.2Benefits per annum relating to each government product:

  • Customer benefits - £16.82m
  • LA benefits - £24.76m
  • DWP benefits - £14.56m
  • HMRC benefits - £0.56m
  • DVLA benefits - £0.32m
  • IPS benefits - £0.05m
  • Avoidable contacts - £3.25m

7.3Overall costs and benefits (for birth and death services):

Total benefits are £225.8m of which;

  • Customer benefits £83.2m
  • Government benefits £172.6m

Total costs are £109.7m

  • Of this, £63.8m are to Local Government
  • The Net Present Value (NPV) is £123.8m
  • The NPV to Government is £62.9m
  • This Programme breaks even in economic terms in Year 3 (2012-13)
  • This Programme breaks even in economic terms in Year 5 for Government (2014-15)

7.4The costs associated with delivery of the death notification aspect of the service in Hertfordshire are as follows:

7.5The additional time for entering the TUO information onto the database and explaining the process is 10 minutes per appointment (as evidenced by the pilot services in Kent and Southwark). There are between 8000 – 9000 death registrations per annum (based on the last 10 years data), thus potentially 1500 hours additional work per annum. Registration Officers are H7.The cost for an H7/29 grade (including super-annuation and NI) for 2010-11 will be £32,257therefore an hourly cost of£19.37including on costs.On this basis, the additional annual financial burden on the Registration Service is approximately £29,055 per annum.

7.6Adult Care Services have committed to contributing to the costs of delivering TUO in Hertfordshire as the predominate beneficiary of savings from the delivery of this initiative. They have committed £21,000 which equates to a single H3 position plus on costs which represents the efficiency to the department from the implementation of TUO. The additional costs of £8,000 will be borne by the Registration Service and the service will be delivered within existing resources.

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