Where do (new) laws and regulations lead to implementation problems? Ziptone spoke with the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), the Central Administration Office (CAK), and the Education Executive Agency (DUO) about the relationship between increasing complexity in laws and regulations and the burden on the front office. How are implementing agencies coping with this? In this first part, we discuss the UWV and CAK.

 

Five years ago, in response to the Child Benefits Affair, public service providers in the Netherlands, from the Tax and Customs Administration to the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), began drafting so-called "bottleneck letters" addressed to the House of Representatives. The bottlenecks identified in these reports (which in many cases also contained solutions for policymakers) are not internal process glitches that implementing agencies can resolve themselves. On the contrary, they are fundamental problems in legislation and regulations that hinder or even prevent implementation.

The signals and feedback that the institutions themselves receive are essential for improving both public services and the legislation and regulations that underpin them, so the thinking goes. The bottleneck letters are therefore part of the State of Execution, a report that is presented annually to Parliament.

From legislation and regulations to customer contact

When implementation bottlenecks affect direct services to citizens, these bottlenecks also affect customer contact. What is the impact, and how do implementation agencies address it? Where can they compensate for bottlenecks themselves with smart solutions, and where are they dependent on policy? In this first part, we discuss the experiences of the front offices of the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) and the Central Administrative Authority (CAK).

First of all, we are curious about the relationship between the bottlenecks that CAK and UWV identify (and include in their annual overviews of bottlenecks for the House of Representatives) and customer contact.

The UWV records and analyzes the reasons why people contact the company by phone. The UWV definitely sees correlations between the complexity/bottlenecks in legislation and regulations and the implementation and volume of customer contact, says Henk Meines, Director of Customer and Service Implementation (K&S) at UWV. “We see this reflected, for example, in the number of questions about the WIA, such as the WIA recovery action. "

Status of implementation at CAK

The CAK collects personal contributions for the Social Support Act (Wmo) and Long-Term Care Act (Wlz) and disburses approximately €32 billion annually to healthcare providers. The CAK also sees that complex laws and regulations are raising more questions among citizens. Some of the bottlenecks identified are reflected in the annual report. Status of Implementation of the CAK. This concerns bottlenecks in policy, legislation, and regulations that cause dire situations and lack of understanding among citizens and complicate implementation. The CAK bases these bottlenecks on factors such as daily customer contact with citizens, but also on customer surveys and customer journeys.

Image: Ziptone/AI

An example of a bottleneck at the CAK For example, those with a "modular home care package" with less than 20 hours of care pay a fixed, low personal contribution. For more than 20 hours, the personal contribution increases. Every month, 6.500 people receive a new calculation. Sometimes this leads to a refund, sometimes to an unexpected additional assessment. This is because the submitting party can only submit the correct information to the CAK (Central Administration Office) 3 to 7 months after the claim process has ended. This leaves citizens uncertain about their final personal contribution. If a personal contribution is calculated too high, it can also have adverse financial consequences, potentially leading citizens to avoid care. The CAK offers a concrete solution: a new care model with a new personal contribution scheme.

How implementation organizations themselves deal with bottlenecks

While there are, of course, legal, and financial frameworks and limitations, a public service provider has some freedom to resolve implementation issues independently, to the extent possible. The question for both the UWV and CAK is where that freedom lies when it comes to customer contact and service provision.

First and foremost, UWV is trying to steer clients towards self-service as much as possible for simpler questions. Both the website and mobile app have been improved in terms of functionality. For example, clients can now view and send workbook messages, view appointments, report illness and recovery, view documents, report job application activities, and adjust settings to receive (push) notifications. UWV has observed a steady decline in the Customer Effort Score for UWV.nl in recent years. The Task Completion Rate for UWV.nl is also steadily increasing, according to UWV.

Secondly, UWV has focused on strengthening the human touch in its services. "The primary line has been strengthened – partly to relieve some of the burden on the secondary line – and for more complex cases, service calls are increasingly being processed, with customer advisors proactively calling the client or providing aftercare."

Sometimes you can't solve it yourself

The CAK indicates that it resolves bottlenecks in implementation and service delivery as much as possible itself or in collaboration with other government organizations. However, the bottlenecks in the Implementation Status report can only be resolved in collaboration with policymakers and politicians. The organization also proposes various solutions for this. Furthermore, the CAK continuously implements improvements for citizens, including by automating and digitizing processes wherever possible, and implementing new technology in a controlled manner.

"It's crucial that we, from the implementation side, continually identify where the challenges lie for both citizens and those implementing the measures," says the CAK. "We offer concrete solutions to policymakers for (further) simplification for citizens, reducing the administrative burden on implementation, and improving cooperation between the various implementing organizations."

More complexity, more complaints, higher workload?

You'd expect more complex laws and regulations to lead to more complaints. But at the UWV, according to Meines, the number of complaints has decreased over the past five years. The UWV tries to prevent problems from escalating, partly by responding to signals early on. "In complex situations, we deploy a client support worker to proactively and preventively resolve situations where clients are at risk of falling through the cracks."

Fewer complaints due to an internal "valve" function in the form of proactive interventions doesn't mean everything runs smoothly. Even without formal complaints, citizens can become frustrated or irritated by complexity. Are there also relationships between implementation bottlenecks and the emotional burden on KCC staff?

The CAK (Central Office for the Protection of Public Health and the Environment) is acutely aware that laws and regulations can sometimes complicate implementation. This can lead to distressing situations and misunderstandings among citizens. "In carrying out our duties, we also encounter people in difficult situations. Naturally, we also consider the emotional burden on employees. We have customized discussion groups where colleagues can discuss difficult situations and solutions with each other. This is also part of our employee training," says the CAK.

Complexity hinders good service

Meines from UWV goes a step further. "We see that client advisors are hampered by complex laws and regulations in providing clients with the right services. This may explain why a quarter of advisors find their workload high in general. To manage the emotional burden effectively, the advisors receive training in stress-sensitive working. This is a way of interacting with clients that takes into account the impact of stress on their thoughts and actions."

At the UWV, Meines explains, absenteeism within the KCC is higher than elsewhere in the organization. The nature of the (heavy) work means absenteeism (and turnover) is relatively high. However, "It's difficult to determine to what extent workload plays a role in this."

The UWV is trying to reduce absenteeism in various ways. In addition, the mandate of primary care providers has been expanded to make the work more attractive. Their influence on schedules has also been increased.

How do you deal with bottlenecks?

Back to the bottlenecks. What levers can the UWV and CAK pull to manage the impact of bottlenecks and thus reduce the number of requests?

Within the UWV, information provision, self-service, and personal contact are the only two areas that can offer a counterbalance. The UWV is currently not using AI or chatbots for customer contact. Solving the bottlenecks, according to the UWV, is primarily intended to better serve clients and to prevent citizens from getting into trouble and implementation from stalling. Cost savings are therefore not a goal. However, "that does not alter the fact that simplifying legislation will yield savings in the first instance," says Meines of the UWV.

At the CAK, optimizing self-service should ensure that citizens can quickly and easily arrange their own digital affairs, eliminating the need for additional services. "This gives us the opportunity to offer additional support to people who need more guidance, either because they lack digital skills or prefer not to use them. Where situations are complex and multiple regulations and support systems converge, we tailor our services and offer customized solutions."

The CAK explicitly considers resolving bottlenecks as part of reducing administrative burdens for both citizens and executives. By extension, resolving bottlenecks should also facilitate collaboration between executive agencies and restore citizens' trust in the government.

UWV and CAK – The UWV front office employs a total of 800 FTEs (nationally). UWV customer service representatives handle 3,3 million phone calls annually, as well as 772.000 emails and 353.000 chats. The self-service options on uwv.nl account for 52,5 million unique visits; werk.nl attracts 13.3 million unique visits. The UWV app has 67.000 users (as of June 2025). UWV sends approximately 12 million letters to customers annually.
The CAK front office employs approximately 100 FTEs (reference date 2024). That year, approximately 750.000 telephone calls were handled for all schemes combined.

(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

Next week on Ziptone part 2 of this article: DUO on the impact of bottlenecks in service provision on customer contact

Customer Experience, Featured