Administrative Burdens for Citizens and ICT Peter Rem

Administrative Burdens for Citizens and ICT Peter Rem The Hague 5 March 2008

Who is Gert? • Disability benefit claimant • Lost his leg in accident at work • Unemployed due to accident • Administrative burdens relate to: – Obtaining aids in the house (wheelchair, new bed) – Getting a new driving licence – Claiming benefits • “I filled in more forms the last two years than the number of taps I repaired in 25 year as a plumber”

Why reducing administrative burdens for citizens? New government Coalition agreement (2007) states that: “ A serving government is a government that puts the citizens and companies in the central position. For this, less rules and bureaucratic burdens and a high quality of public services are necessary. ” So close cooperation between programme on reducing administrative burdens for citizens and E-government programme: ICT is an important tool to be able to reduce administrative burdens and to improve the quality of public services Administrative burdens are costs to businesses and citizens complying with the information obligations resulting from government imposed legislation and regulations

How did we measure? (1) Methodology Standard Cost Model for Citizens measures in: Time in hours Out of pocket costs (e. g. notary, travel costs, stamps) in Euros • AB citizens= T x Q and C x Q • • • T= Time in hours C= Out of pocket costs in Euros Q= Number of people affected by the AB • People find time more burdensome than costs (in Euros)

Some facts: Total AB Citizen the Netherlands (16 mln inhabitants): 110 mln hours € 1, 275 billion out of pocket costs We measured 165 laws and regulations with AB for citizens (=20% of the total number of information obligations) Regulations with the highest number of AB were: Income Tax Act: 15 mln hours and € 156 mln Passport Act: 12. 7 mln hours and € 18 mln Road Traffic Act 12. 5 mln hours and € 174 mln But also Voting Act: 3. 3 mln hours and € 79. 000

Administrative burdens of Gert: An example:

What do citizens want? Less administrative burdens (bureaucracy) One front office (‘no wrong door’) Easy access to the right information One-off data delivery An ‘easy’ relationship while interacting Good treatment by government (‘be taken seriously’)

How did we reduce burdens? Coordinating programme on reducing burdens of citizens within the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Reduction proposals of 8 ministries adding up to - 25% reduction of AB citizens Specific focus on reducing burdens for target groups: handicapped and chronically ill, elderly, benefit claimants, unemployed and volunteers Ministerial AB ceilings (compensation) Complaints office and kafka brigade Smart ICT solutions on the basis of a common ICT infrastructure

What did we do for Gert? Amongst others: • Renewal of the parking card for handicapped people happens automatically • Single electronic file for people who receive an unemployment benefit: people will have to provide information only once • Prefilled electronic forms on income tax • Benefit claimants are automatically exempted from local taxes • Several other forms are electronically available and the language in the forms has been made simpler

Results by end 2007 Overall result of AB target groups Mother on social security (Maria) Volunteer (Henk) Handicapped child (Bart) Old person in need (Thea) Average family (Verstappen) Vital old person (Mikel) Chronically ill (Pauline) Benefit claimant (Gert) Unemployed (Johan) 39% 0% 11% 25% 0% 14% 25% 0% 30% 25% 0% 16% 25% 0% 20% 25% 0% 19% 25% 0% 12% 25% 0% 25%

Change in approach 2007 -2011 New focus on solutions that matter -> reduction of burdens relating to top ten annoyances of citizens Broader approach including service delivery Working together with the local government (new target in CA: -25% of local admin burden for citizens) Quantification mainly to monitor: Departmental admin burden ceilings and new legislation Consequences for the admin burden of target groups

New focus on qualitative burdens of citizens Top 10 solutions (1): 1. Fast and secure service: waiting time will be transparent and shorter 2. Simple application and accountability with social security 3. Single provision of data: all income-related arrangements in one personal internet page 4. Passports are easily obtainable 5. Reduction of permits, towards general rules

New focus on qualitative burdens of citizens Top 10 solutions (2): 6. Comprehensible language in forms 7. More trust: more free-of-accountability 8. budgets 8. Mediation 9. Volunteer work: treated like citizens, not enterprises 10. Quality of services: 7/10

Conditions for success: combine quality with quantity Focus on real issues that matter for citizens Make a top ten of measurable and noticeable (for political debate) reductions (on the level of central/decentralised government and role models) Get political support in government and parliament for this top ten Independent watchdog `Actal´ Departmental admin burden ceilings for a net result Awareness: citizen perspective central: ask citizens whether they notice the reductions

What are we proud of: By means of the complaints office, we are able to help people with administrative burdens in a very practical way There is close cooperation with local government (Association of Netherlands municipalities) to reduce burdens on the local level Government has approved a norm of simplicity to make forms easily understandable for citizens Digid: electronic password for government services is used by 6 million people Uniform Citizens Service number: enables government organisations to exchange information about citizens more easily

International activities Cooperation with other European Countries to exchange knowledge, good practices and experiences What a relief network: www. whatarelief. eu: focuses on better services with less bureaucracy for citizens Learning team on reducing administrative burdens of citizens within the European Public Administration Network: more than 18 countries participate • European Union: lobby European Commission for more attention to the administrative burdens of citizens: New EU-legislation must include information about consequences for citizens

Thank you for your attention! For more information: www. whatarelief. eu Peter Rem Peter. rem@minbzk. nl +31 70 426 7487