The report, seen by the Guernsey Press, concluded that ‘little has changed’ in clients’ experiences since 2022 and 2023, despite the launch of the MyGov Customer Hub, which was meant to bring customer-facing services together in one place.
It said the hub ‘has not facilitated any improvement in customer service’, and that the costly outsourcing of States IT services, expected to improve the customer experience, ‘failed’.
‘The use of technology and a “one-stop, tell us once” approach was anticipated to improve access and use. It is apparent from the experiences of our clients that this is not the case,’ the report said.
Citizens Advice Guernsey recorded 25 clients who reported difficulty accessing States departments last year, raising 38 separate issues. Many were passed from one department to another.
Population management, passports and immigration was the most frequently cited area, with eight issues. General phone and online portals followed with seven, then Employment & Social Security with six.
Clients described calls going unanswered, long phone queues, being unable to speak to a person, and calls not being returned. Some said they had been given different information by staff in the same department, and that benefit rules ‘became confused’ when temporary staff were covering or key staff were on holiday.
Several clients reported trouble getting information and advice from the Revenue Service because of restrictions on phone and email contact. They described slow email replies, repeated unproductive calls about previous years’ tax and new demands, and rebates that did not arrive when promised.
Population Management’s restricted phone hours were a barrier for clients working shifts, and some were refused face-to-face meetings. One query was reportedly answered with the words ‘above my pay grade’.
Guest workers faced having to contact several departments for the permits they needed to live and work in the Bailiwick, which was particularly difficult for those whose first language was not English.
The report stated those without internet access, many of whom were older, were hit hardest by restricted opening hours and a reluctance to use ‘traditional’ methods of communication. These clients experienced the system as exclusion.
In one case, a client was directed to a website despite having no internet connection, and staff did not seem to recognise the problem.
‘The need to adopt digital technologies is clear but there also needs to be a system in place to cover for times whenever IT problems occur or customers are not able, for whatever reason, to go online,’ the report said.
It noted that a review by chief executive Boley Smillie suggested there was recognition of the extent of the problems with former IT provider Agilisys, and that strategies to address them were now being developed.
Citizens Advice Guernsey will assess whether anything has changed in its report on this year’s data.
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