EP&NBC uses a beige and blue form to cover both HB and CTB. The form is available from the benefits enquiry desk at the LA Civic Centre in Ellesmere Port, on request from the Housing Benefits section and from the benefits advisor.
Forms are also available from the Neston Town Hall, Area Housing Offices, the bail hostel (Bunbury House) and Homelessness Unit (Stoke Lodge). Occasionally a Housing Association or major landlord will request a supply of forms. This is not a practice that we recommend.
Evidence from the new and renewal claims sampling found the completion of the forms to be good and EP&NBC is to be commended for the good practices of having only one form for both HB and CTB and for using the same form for new and repeat claims.
EP&NBC was already taking steps to revise the claim form at the time of our inspection and to ensure the efficacy of the new form, it intends to consult with local interest groups as part of the design process.
To further help EP&NBC, the services of BFI’s editor were offered to evaluate the existing form. A workshop subsequently took place.
Effective design helps better quality of completion and the inputting of information. LAs are not obliged to use any particular model of claim form design, although the provisions of legislation mean that a good deal of consistent information must be obtained.
The layout of the colours of the form, beige and blue, works well, although a darker blue would be better to make the text stand out more. The use of white-out answer spaces works well against a darker background tint.
The text on the form is not large enough to be easily read. The Royal National Institute for Blind recommends a minimum type size of 12 points on public documents.
Block capitals are often used in the form, particularly for the notes on the front page. The use of these large block capitals means that there is insufficient ‘white space’ (unused area on the page) so the form may look crowded and intimidating. Also, research has shown that people find it very difficult to read block capitals as they tend to scan over block capitals, rather than reading them as words. This is a particular concern if they are used for important notes meant to help the claimant.
Another potential problem is that block capitals can over emphasise. As the letters are larger than lower case letters, they look darker so appear like bold letters. As a consequence, bold lower case letters are not strong enough to convey emphasis. The best way to emphasise is to use bold rather than capitals.
Fully justified text should be avoided as it can stretch words and spaces, distorting the text’s appearance. We recommend all text is ranged left with a ragged right margin.
There are a number of examples of initial capital letters being given to words without reason.
Form layouts ideally use a supporting grid to avoid confusing the person filling it in. A grid establishes a set of conventions, which helps the claimant move through the form and helps processing staff to know where to look for relevant answers. The EP&NBC form tries to establish a grid layout but it is not consistent. We recommend EP&NBC adopts a supporting grid in its page layouts.
We recommend writing the form in the active voice. Instructions in the passive voice are often difficult to understand for poor readers. We suggest that abbreviations, such as etc, ie and eg, are avoided if possible.
We would expect the form to ask about:
Although the last date of entry to the UK is not asked for, the claim form does ask if the claimant has come to live in the UK in the last 5 years. Following this question, it should be explained to the claimant that the LA would need to ask for further information if the answer from the claimant is ‘yes’.
The question regarding children who live with the claimant and for whom the claimant receives Child Benefit (ChB) should be split. It is better to ask for details of all children living with the claimant, and separately ask whether the claimant receives ChB.
The claim form contains income certificates that the claimants are requested to have completed by their employer. Involving the claimant in the process to obtain verification of earnings increases risk. A better practice is for the LA to contact the employer directly to confirm details.
Claimants in receipt of benefit are asked to provide information about benefits received, but there is no question regarding deductions from benefit or benefits claimed but not yet paid. The availability of the RAT should address the first issue, but not the second.
The form does make it clear that the information may be shared with other bodies administering public funds. This good practice would be enhanced if it covered protection under the Data Protection Act 1984.
The claim form used by EP&NBC is good, but there is scope for further improvement. There are a number of inconsistencies in text, terminology and layout and some important questions not covered.
The claim form should be revised by: