Child Benefit Service (Ireland)

Transcription

1 Abstract 1. Case Summary: The e-enabled child benefit service in Ireland supports the automatic and proactive allocation of a child s Personal Public Service (PPS) Number and the initiation of the child benefit claim after the registration of the birth of a child. This eliminates the need for customers to furnish a birth certificate to authenticate their claim and, for many, also eliminates the need to complete an application form. Births are registered in a two-stage process. Following the birth the hospital or midwife notifies the local Registrar of Births of the relevant details. This is done by completing a Birth Notification Form and sending it to the local Registrar or, in the case of some maternity hospitals, via an electronic interface between the hospital computer system and the civil registration computer system. For validation of this information, the parent is then required to attend the Registrar s Office to register the birth. On completion of the registration process the details are sent electronically, via the Inter-Agency Messaging Service (IAMS), to the Department of Social and Family Affairs where a Personal Public Service (PPS) Number is automatically allocated to the child and the relevant details are passed, electronically, to the Department s child benefit computer system. Where the child is the first born a pre-filled claim form is sent to the parents for validation, signature and payment (bank/post office) details. In the case of second and subsequent children the claim is processed automatically and payment issued to the mother without any manual intervention. 2. Type of case: eservice 3. Name of the case: 4. Acronym of the case: 5. Initiative/program: 6a. Category of clients: - citizens - business - administration 6b. Public eservices for citizens: - Social security contributions (e.g. unemployment benefits, family allowances, medical costs, student grants, etc.) Other services for citizens: 6c. Public eservices for business: Page 1/6

2 Other services for business: 6d. Administration eservices: Administration to administration service: Internal administration service: 7. Standard: Name of the standard: 8. Technology: Other: 9. Status: Operation Case profile 10. Policy issues addressed by case: - Social affairs (health, pensions, social security, etc.) 11. Levels of organisations involved: - Local - National - Ministry Other: 12. Type of integration involved: Both vertically and horizontally 13. Types of partnerships involved: Cooperation between the public authorities and the Reach agency which is a government initiative by the State. Page 2/6

3 Other: Cooperation between the public authorities and the Reach agency which is a government initiative by the State. 14. Integration / interoperability critical for the project?: Both critical for the project Description of the case 15. Objectives achieved or anticipated and awards received: The specific case of e-enablement of the child benefit service is part of a wider programme to e-enable Life Event Data in Ireland more generally. The fundamental objectives in relation to this are: a) Electronically sharing life event data between agencies. b) Automatic allocation, by the DSFA, of a Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) to a child on receipt of electronic notification of a birth. c) Automated processing of child benefit claims following allocation of the PPSN. From the perspective of child benefit services in Ireland, the combined goal of the three related initiatives - redesign of the child benefit (CB) system, modernisation of civil registration (GRO) and inter-agency linkage and messaging (IAMS) - was to e-enable the process of initiation of child benefit claims. This required back-office and IT-system developments in both the child benefit and the civil registration services, as well as the development and implementation of a conduit for electronic notification of birth registrations from the civil registration service to the child benefit service. In relation to this overall goal, the specific objectives were to: a) Automatically and proactively initiate the process of claiming for child benefit for all new births in Ireland. b) Eliminate the need for customers to submit a physical birth certificate when making a claim for child benefit for a new born baby. Each of the three agencies involved also had more specific objectives, related to their core businesses with respect to the back-office re-organisations and/or IT-system developments that contribute to the new e-enabled child benefit service. The Reach agency which is responsible for the technical development was awarded in the framework of the eeurope Awards for egovernment 2003 for the IAM-Service which has a central role in the service provision. 16. Please explain shortly the problems your case had to solve and the solutions found: In terms of interoperability (IOP), the problems a case had are dependent on the "Localisation of Service Integration", i.e. whether in the Front-office or Back-office, the "Layers of IOP" where achievements have been made and the specific "Interoperability Requirement" that had to be solved Page 3/6

4 in order to gain these achievements. In the following these IOP characteristics of the case are stated and commented: Location of service integration (service provision model): Back-office / Back-office The case is about integration of back-offices; the user plays only a role in case the process can't be realised fully electronically. Main Layers of IOP covered: Technical IOP, Syntactic IOP, Semantic IOP, Organisational IOP Tech. IOP:Government VPN, Synt. IOP: data exchange based on XML. Sem. IOP: PPSN for identification throughout public services and the life- event model. With regard to the organisational collaboration, the use of the Naked Object Architecture, the legal changes and the process re-engineering via the Departmental Integrated Services Connector (DISC), the organisational IOP is also central. IOP requirement in the service provision: 1b2:IOP between different services referring to the same customer and resorting to common data (within different public administrations on different government levels), 2:IOP between different stages of a supply chain producing one or more services. IOP is required between the authorities along the sequential organised child benefit service. Since the service is only one service which is offered by the Reach agency, which functions as a Public Services Broker for egovernment Services in Ireland in general, IOP between different services is also required. The solutions found to meet the IOP requirement are based on the employment of a specific Primary Organisational Model: Standardised workflows The case shows a clear model of standardised workflows between the several involved stages with some centralisation aspects (e.g. the central civil registration database). 17. Please explain the impact made and results achieved by your case: Main indicators of impact and results are the outreach of service provision and the effects achieved for agencies and other users: Outreach: National, full roll-out of the service in the main part of the service provision. Only the electronic linkage of some hospitals is lacking. In cases were no full electronic case handling is possible, pro-active support is being provided (40% of cases). Page 4/6

5 Effects: -To agencies: Money saved per case, Time saved per case, Improved collaboration, Better data quality and more qualitative work, e.g. 62,000 certificates less per year, -To other users: Faster delivery of service, Time saved per case, Consideration of user's need and satisfaction, In most cases no applications are necessary. More timely receipt of payments 18. What are the main learning points of your case; can the experience gained be transferred to other institutions or cases? The learning points are indicated by the innovative issues of the case: Very innovative is the pro-active triggering of child benefit claims. Starting from the electronic child registration process at the hospital via the local and national registration offices to the child benefit section. Supporting is the IAMS securely linking the various agencies and the DISC securely linking the back-offices in the DSFA. The infrastructure is being used for other e-enabled services as well. Transferability limits of the case: The adherence to standards and IOP frameworks allows from a technical point of view high transferability. Since the case is about a service which involves national offices and is nationwide spread, transferability to other countries from an organisational point of view seems to be rather difficult. 19. Date on which the case became operational: Languages available for the use of case: English Others: 21. Web address of the case: Contact data supporting applicant Coughlan, Ger Reach Page 5/6

6 telephone Dublin Ireland first applicant Doherty, Paddy Client Identity Services telephone fax Gandon House, Amiens Street Dublin 1 Ireland Murphy, Patricia DSFA telephone Ireland Additional links none Page 6/6