Customer Forum - Minutes of the Fourth Meeting
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Contents
Dave Sankey welcomed everyone to the 4th Customer Forum. Roger Hurcombe, the Director of IR (Savings, Pensions, Share Schemes) outlined the changes that are being made within the Inland Revenue bringing related areas of work together to improve the service to Ministers and to customers. Asked if the new arrangements would address the conflicts and co-ordination issues with tax and DSS legislation, he said that we already had links with DSS and would be strengthening them. The idea is to provide a more joined up approach both within the Revenue and between departments. It was suggested that a graphical representation of the new organisation would make things clearer. Concern was expressed that the name of the new business stream was a little unwieldy and there was also a need for customers to be able to reach the right part of the larger organisation. The main message is that customers will still be dealing with the same people at the same addresses and the same phone numbers. Roger Hurcombe also mentioned that options to reduce the complexity of some Revenue requirements, ease the regulatory impact on the pensions industry, and improve the efficiency of customer service were being reviewed. One of the options is that the PSO rewrites its guidance. The PSO regards this as its greatest priority and will be considering how best to do it. If it is to be effective and meet customers' needs, it will need input from the industry and the PSO plans to invite organisations to provide some resource to help with the rewrite. . There had been a couple of incidents since the last meeting where comments made at the Forum and at the JWG had been picked up by the Trade Press. This highlighted a problem area, i.e. how to maintain the free and frank discussion that characterised the Forum and made it work so well, while making the outcome of the discussions available to the industry at large. Members were free to discuss issues within their own organisations, and beyond where they were representative bodies, and to circulate minutes and papers similarly unless they were specifically asked not to. It was agreed that minutes would subsequently be published on the Internet and freely available to be reproduced. Jim Kitson, the head of PSO's new Business Development Team, outlined some of the projects he is involved in for improving customer service. He explained that Contracted Out Employments Group, Opra and the PSO were working together to develop a Joint Pension Schemes System that would provide a single gateway for the industry into government and a single database of pension schemes. A pilot to test processes was now running with a limited number of providers. Work was taking place to define the key activities that would be handled by the computer system and these included applications for approval for contracting-out, tax approval and Opra registration as well as notifying changes that affected approval. In line with the Government drive to increase e-commerce the design aimed to offer as many services as possible through the Internet. Planning was still being developed and at this stage the project did not have the agreed funding for completion. The assumption for early planning purposes was introduction of the system in April 2002. The PSO recognised the importance of signalling this development work to customers and the vital need to consult at an early stage. The proposal was that because the potential administrative impact was so great, a separate customer consultation group of representative bodies should be set up to be involved in the implementation. The Forum welcomed the concept of having a single gateway for their applications and the opportunity to handle business electronically as it would overcome the present need to replicate the provision of information. Early notice of the project was appreciated as was the plan for consultation from an early planning stage. Members pointed out that they recognised that in some instances changes in legislation might be needed to enable e-business. A further update on progress will be given at the next meeting. Dave Sankey outlined the way in which we had taken forward the 14 expressions of interest that had been received from customers about exchanges of staff and shadowing, following the invitation in Update 58. The exercise had been fruitful and applicants included lawyers, actuaries, SSAS practitioners, consultants, Life Offices, Pensioneer Trustees and IFAs. Various organisations were interested in spending some time visiting PSO and offered opportunities for PSO people to spend some time seeing how they operated and what problems they had. PSO had already made some visits and set up arrangements for many of the applicants but were unable to meet everyone's wishes entirely. Other conversations had led to more efficient ways of meeting customers' needs and for the PSO to reach a much wider audience. The PSO will, for instance, be arranging a seminar in Nottingham for 40 people, providing specialists to take previously notified questions on a number of issues raised by applicants and will be advertising the event in the New Year. The PSO is putting a great deal of effort into providing proactive customer education, to supplement other initiatives to improve the availability and clarity of information. Barrie Raggett, the PSO's Customer Services Manager, has arranged with the Chairman of the Society of Financial Advisers to hold a series of regional seminars specifically targeted at IFAs. He will be contacting the Association of IFAs shortly to find out what IFAs want the sessions to include and to discuss format and locations. The first seminar is likely to take place next May. Forum members were invited to write to Barrie to suggest what they would like to be included which would assist them in their dealings with IFAs. Dave Sankey gave advance notice of Update 78, published on 20 November, giving the results of the most recent customer survey. The results of other full surveys had been very good, showing that the PSO was receiving high ratings in those areas which customers regarded as most important to them. Most conspicuously 77% felt that the service had improved in the last three years, particularly in speed of response, helpfulness and flexibility. Nearly 45% of respondents thought that the PSO was better than other organisations they dealt with and only 8% thought it was worse. The remaining 47% thought it was much the same. Asked if the results bore out their experience, Forum members said that the handling of the bulk of the routine work had improved but that there were still areas where improvement was necessary, that PSO should monitor the quality of post that was going out, and that there were problems with lack of experience among examiners. Dave Sankey explained that the latter was due to the high turnover of staff. The PSO is spending a lot of effort in increasing the amount of further training and is doing all it can to simplify procedures and requirements and thereby to speed up response times. Work had also been devolved, which inevitably passed it down to less experienced people. Geoffrey Preston suggested that PSO examiners should collect frequently asked questions on SSAS issues and that the APT would be pleased to publicise the questions and answers to their members. FAQs on the OPS and PP Helplines and on Public Sector issues had been compiled and these were on the Internet. The same is being done with Customer Service Section, though there is less scope for FAQs where enquiries are scheme specific. The PSO will, however, address SSAS questions and publicise via the Internet. and would be happy for the APT to assist with publicising independently or to help identify the questions through their members. Chris Fox said that there were some difficulties between the model rules that the PSO had issued on pension sharing on divorce and the participation of overseas employers. To enable the reapproval of existing standard documents through the PSO's fast track procedure the model rules had to be bolted on without amendment. The PSO will look into this and clarify the guidance. There was a general plea for simplifying policy. The PSO are reviewing the topics which are most time consuming for staff and will be publicising some changes to forms and procedures which will simplify things for customers. Asked if the PSO should invite industry magazines to include Updates, Dave Sankey replied that the industry press is free to publish PSO material if they wish but the PSO would contact them to promote the idea. Members made a number of suggestions to improve the new PS 667 form designed for customers to input requests for amendments to our published guidance. Members were not keen on circulating others to get wider support before submitting requests for changes. It was agreed that the form should be posted on the Internet. and included in PN and other publications as a standard feature. PSO will then be able to tell how widespread interest is in a particular amendment by the number of people who draw attention to the problem. Asked if the PSO would give some response as to how the requests would be taken forward, Dave Sankey replied that not much detail could be given in response to individual suggestions as the purpose of the form was to flag up changes which would be implemented as and when resource was available. Asked if the PSO should put something on the Internet. about requests and suggestion for improvement already made, he said that this might inhibit others from making the same suggestion and thereby prevent them endorsing the need for attention to a particular part. Asked if the form could be used to suggest simplifications or changes of practice, he said that the form was designed for clarification and improvement to existing material. While welcoming any ideas for simplification this might not be the best medium for them. A revised version of the form will be issued to members who were invited to e-mail any further suggestions or comments. 9 - Acknowledgements / Working by Telephone PSO examiners were using the telephone more and sending fewer acknowledgements, and post arrears were reducing. Members felt that the new arrangements weren't causing any difficulty but mentioned that ensuring that the Information Regulation requirements were met was still an area of concern. It was suggested that perhaps the PSO might acknowledge by e-mail. Unfortunately this defeats the object of the worksaving. It was anticipated, however, that as new business was transacted by e-mail in future it would be possible to receive automatic confirmation of receipt without effort by the recipient. Opinions varied on whether all systems were compatible and would enable this to happen automatically. The PSO will research this as part of its business development programme. The PSO is reletting its printing and publishing contract. The Revenue is also phasing out internal printed instructions and writing only for the screen. PSO has to provide printed material for customers for the immediate future, but has to consider the most cost effective way of doing this. Members were invited to complete a questionnaire to let PSO know which options they favour. Asked for their views on the likelihood of an increase in occupational pension scheme applications next year and a view on trends, members were unable to offer any reliable predictions, other than the probability of a continuing shift away from final salary schemes (which won't affect volume) and conversions from old to new forms of defined contribution schemes, e.g. Stakeholder and group PP schemes. Some members suggested that the Helplines be extended, perhaps from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm or even from 8.00 am to 6.00 PM A survey of 363 calls over one week since the meeting shows that the PSO Helpline is answering 94% of callers the first time they ring up and that all but 2 people among the remainder were answered the second time they rang. This is in line with earlier call back surveys and does not suggest that there is suppressed demand during normal working hours. We would also want to poll all customers to see whether there is a widespread demand for extended hours. The PP/Stakeholder Helpline was now operating from 9.00 am to 5.00 PM after operating a shortened service. The PSO were asked the status of the FSAVC Practice Notes. They are still referred to as a draft but customers are told they are nonetheless authoritative. The draft predates flexibility and is causing practical problems. The PSO are adding an entry to the website to say "The current version of the Guidance Notes on Free-standing Additional Voluntary Contributions Schemes (FSAVCs) may continue to be used by pension practitioners. We will be publishing an internet version and a paper version in January 2001. These published versions will include provisions on the flexible use of FSAVCs as introduced in PSO Update No 54." Asked when the missing parts of IR76 would appear, Trevor Smeath replied that a new edition of IR76 would be issued with Update 75 on 20 November. Some later amendments will be issued on 18 December. It was suggested that PSO Updates are not easy to find on the PSO website pages and could they be placed nearer the top rather than burying them? Since the meeting the PSO has put some suggestions to the website administrators for improving accessibility of the Updates and await their comments. Dave Sankey thanked Forum members for attending the meeting in the face of significant travelling difficulties. The next meeting will be at 10.30 on Wednesday, 16 May 2000 at Somerset House. DAVE SANKEY |
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