Many income support recipients report their income late, which results in delayed, and sometimes even cancelled, payments. This can lead to financial gaps for these Australians and their families.
BETA joined forces with the Australian Government Department of Human Services to help job seekers report on time to receive their income support payments on time.
Drawing on behavioural insights, we designed six versions of an SMS reminder and ran a trial to test if they would improve people’s reporting behaviour.
The findings of our trial are clear: small, simple communication changes make a big difference. We found sending any SMS reminder increased the number of people who reported on time and reduced the number of payment cancellations.
Authors: Professor Michael J. Hiscox, Scott Copley, Jacqui Brewer, Andrei Turenko, and James Wilson.
Pre-registration information
The aim of the study is to examine whether providing targeted, timely and behaviourally informed prompts about reporting income, via SMS, improves the number of recipients who report on time.
Customers in receipt of Newstart Allowance and Youth Allowance Jobseeker payments administered by the Department of Human Services (DHS) are required to report fortnightly any income they receive from employment. Such reporting ensures recipients receive the correct payment. Late reporters may have their payments cancelled. This can be problematic for the recipient and can increase departmental work resulting from effort required to reinstate recipients back onto payments and increased customer contact.
This trial will have seven arms and will scientifically test behaviour against some key behavioural concepts such as personalisation and loss and gain framed messages.
It is anticipated findings from this research will inform service delivery both within the lead department and across the Australian Public Service.