Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA)

Netting criminal injuries compensation

Parity redesigns CICA website to improve victims’ claim process

Introduction

In the UK, there are 250,000 violent crimes annually with a similar number of victims, of these 75,000 individuals claim compensation for their ordeal.

Those victims seeking compensation are referred to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). This government agency is responsible for processing and managing information about injuries sustained and ensuring that victims are compensated accordingly.

The CICA helps thousands of victims claim financial compensation following violent crime, and it wanted to speed up the process and make the process more user-friendly and accessible to a wider audience.

The CICA also hoped to encourage those victims who didn’t come forward to make a claim to seek the compensation they were due. So in 2002, the CICA undertook a project to update its website and bring the claim process online.

Making a claim

said Colin Carmichael, IT director at the CICA.

Parity was selected as the consulting partner for the project, based on its experience in e-government and Web design in the public sector. The aim was not only to create a site that combined simplicity, clarity and value, but also to help the CICA meet the Government’s targets for putting services online.

Carmichael continued.

In addition, to further improve efficiency, the CICA wanted to become connected to the Government Secure Intranet (GSI), which facilitates email communication with other government-based agencies such as the police and NHS.

Moving onto the Web

The first step of the project involved Parity consultants meeting with caseworkers who actually processed the claim forms. A series of workshops allowed the CICA team to discuss how the online form should work, what it should look like and what information would help both the victims and third party information providers, such as the police and medical authorities, who were also reliant on the evidence given in the claim forms.

The workshop identified several elements in the existing paper claim form that the caseworkers felt caused problems.

Ian Stanley, a business development manager at Parity, explained how the development worked:

Adding innovators online

An example of where the project simplified intricate information is the graphical human body used to help claimants identify the location of their injuries. Victims often inadvertently gave inaccurate descriptions, which slowed the claim process as the details had to be verified. To address this issue, Parity designed a graphical human body, which listed a number of possible injuries based on which part of the anatomy the mouse was clicked. This tool allowed claimants to select the most relevant category easily, rather than having to recall the correct medical terminology for their wounds.

Application eligibility was another factor that the website sought to simplify. A number of applicants would not qualify for compensation, but time was spent populating and processing these forms. The solution was an online eligibility calculator built into the claim form, which features a series of questions at the beginning of the electronic form, and results in an indication of whether or not a claim would result in compensation.

Claimants are still able to carry on with their application, but expectations on the likely success of their claim are managed. This will hopefully reduce the number of unsuitable claims that the CICA caseworkers has to process.

said Carmichael.

Parity consultants managed the project for around 7 months, often working remotely, but maintaining regular contact with the CICA IT team and caseworkers, by adapting their ideas into prototypes, screen shots and eventually a live system.

Carmichael continues,

View the site: www.cica.gov.uk