Page 37 - Solving Housing Disputes

the webchat fielded 9,811 live chat engagements in the full calendar year of
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2019, with a 99% customer satisfaction rate. The HDS should offer a similar
approach to initial procedural advice, over webchat and over the phone, to
encourage those who contact the service to exhaust internal complaint avenues
with the housing provider, to guide users through initiating a dispute and
signpost them to sources of early advice.

2.47 Many systems offer models of support for people who struggle with digital
processes. Caroline Sheppard OBE, Chief Adjudicator of the Traffic Penalty
Tribunal (TPT), told us that the tribunal successfully provides over the phone
administrative support to people who are digitally excluded, with staff acting
as proxies for callers, completing forms based on instruction, and then mailing
them out for appellants to check over and sign, before submission. The HDS
should offer similar support for those who are digitally excluded. This model
might work for simpler claims within the HDS, such as maladministration
claims, but for more complex matters, technical assistance and signposting to
legal advice should be provided simultaneously. Digital Support, the technical
support service accompanying the Reform Programme, should, to the extent
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practicable, be co-located with sources of housing advice and information,
so that advisors can assist claimants in filing disputes digitally. Whatever form
it takes, assistance should be available for those who are digitally excluded,
whether that is to help them get online, or to initiate disputes through
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traditional methods.

81 The TPO webchat is administered for an annual cost equivalent to one administrative level full-time
equivalent employee. Included in this cost, Yomdel provides a team of up to 10 live webchat operators
and additional supervisors who are trained to the TPO standards and legal requirements such as GDPR.
The service operates 24/7 and 365 days a year. The service has an average speed-to-answer of 14.5
seconds and an average chat handling time of just under 14 minutes. Only 12% of those initial contacts
have involved further action from the TPO. The Property Ombudsman, Katrine Sporle, told us that over
40% of contacts are outside of business hours, and that the webchat is particularly popular amongst
students, who use the service anonymously to avoid the fear of reprisal evictions.

82 Initially, Digital Support (previously called Assisted Digital) was kept distinct from legal advice and
assistance, with the consequence of low uptake. HMCTS has since changed their approach, and Digital
Support can now be offered as an add on to legal advice and procedural support, Brazier, ‘Helping users
to access our online services’, (Inside HMCTS Blog, 23 January 2020) available at https://insidehmcts.
blog.gov.uk/2020/01/23/helping-users-to-access-our-online-services/

83 As described at paragraph 2.23 questioning on vulnerability, including digital capability, would be
included in forms used to initiate or respond to a dispute in the HDS. When those forms first reach any
allocated HDS officer, adjustments should be arranged as soon as possible. Further, at this first point of
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