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

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

2. 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”

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. Administrative burdens of Gert: An example:

7. 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’)

8. 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

9. 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

10. Results by end 2007Overall result of AB target groups 20% 39% 14% 11% 30% 12% 19% 26% 16% Mother on social security (Maria) 0% 25% Volunteer (Henk) 0% 25% Handicapped child (Bart) 0% 25% Old person in need (Thea) 0% 25% Average family (Verstappen) 0% 25% Vital old person (Mikel) 0% 25% Chronically ill (Pauline) 0% 25% Benefit claimant (Gert) 0% 25% Unemployed (Johan) 0% 25%

11. 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

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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

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