DWP survey looking at how UC claimants use their journal

From DWP -

The External Stakeholder Engagement team are working alongside our DWP Research Partners to gather insight regarding the UC Journal.

We would therefore appreciate your support by completing the Survey found below.

This insight will enable us to improve our service to our customers and their families, friends, appointees and those that support them like yourselves.

What is the research

One of DWP’s research teams have created a survey to investigate how people claiming UC use the Journal on their account.

The Survey will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

Why are we doing it?

The researchers will use the responses to inform potential design improvements to the Universal Credit Journal.

Who is it for?

We are looking for anyone who supports customers with claiming Universal Credit to complete the Survey.

What is the closing date?

We’re hoping to collect all responses by 11th January.

Survey link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/UCJournal/

Daphne I’ve posted this on CITA’s fiendfaceplace so hopefully welfs will respond.

I think it’s great that they are asking for help to improve things, and I’ve just completed the survey. But it didn’t seem very clear.

First question: “How do you support people who claim Universal Credit?” The response field looks like it would fit a reasonably long sentence, but there’s no indication of how long a response they are inviting or are able to deal with. It’s such a general and non-specific question that you’ve either got to guess what they’re asking for, or write a really comprehensive answer (which is quite hard to do when you can only see the last ten words you typed).

But for me there’s not actually a lot wrong with the journal itself - it’s more about the staff who use it, the other parts of the online UC account, and the processes. It’s a bit like asking how the telephones could be improved - maybe answer them more quickly and make sure the people who answer them know what they’re talking about?

And the timing? If I wanted comprehensive responses from people I probably wouldn’t set up a consultation that ran for three weeks, including Christmas.

I hope I’m not being too cynical.