How to Use Behavioural Science to Increase the Uptake of Debt Advice.

• Context
• The study
• Key findings
• Points to consider

Context

MaPS worked with Ogilvy Change, a specialist behavioural interventions agency, to explore how insights from behavioural science could be used to improve access to debt advice.

A great challenge for free service providers is getting people to turn up to their appointments. Missed appointments have a direct impact on other service users by increasing wait times, as well as financial implications for service providers.

Findings from the research were used to compile a ‘Top Tips’ guide, designed to provide a starting point, provoking thought and discussion around how to communicate better with people that do or could use debt advice services.

The study

Alongside Ogilvy Change and debt advice organisations in London, MaPS reviewed the general communications journey to see where the biggest challenges and opportunities to engage with over-indebted people are. With a focus on:

• Signposting people to services
• Getting people to attend scheduled appointments

Two pilot projects were undertaken with RCJ Citizens Advice (RCJCA) and South West London Law Centres (SWLLC); both offering a free debt advice service.

An immersive, ethnographic approach was used within the two settings comprising:

• An assessment of existing communications from a behavioural design perspective
• Interviews with a range of stakeholders
• Observations of the setting environment and interactions occurring within it
• A review of the behavioural science literature surrounding debt and financial decision making (RCJCA)

The findings from these studies informed a practical communications ‘solution’ for each setting, designed to improve signposting (RCJCA) and improve appointment attendance (SWLLC). These solutions were the subject of a 4-week controlled trial to apply and test the effectiveness of each behavioural science approach. The results of the trials informed the development of this guide and a series of ’10 Top Tips’

Key findings

**Signposting people to services:

The initial ethnographic research found that signposting communications needed to be:

• Simplified
• Personally relevant (while maintaining privacy)
• Salient within the court environment
• Friendly, making the act of seeking advice seem easy and acceptable
• Delivered by the right messenger

A signpost card was created to this specification and trialled.

Early findings indicated that, over a 4-week testing period, a total of 130 cards were given out, 80 directly to individuals. Around 15% of those given a card took action straight away and sought debt advice whilst still in court.

**Getting people to attend scheduled appointments:

The initial research found that communications about scheduled appointments needed to:

• Elicit greater commitment from the client
• Chunk up the journey
• Be simpler and more salient
• Reduce complexity about appointment preparation.

A New Communications Strategy was developed and implemented. Early findings showed that, within the four-week testing period, appointment attendance rates increased by over a third, from around 50% to 67%.

The streamlined communications and more frequent contacts have had a particularly positive impact on harder to reach clients – those with mental health challenges, low literacy levels, and those who already failed to attend multiple appointments previously.

Points to consider

• Methodological strengths/weaknesses: The four-week efficacy trials of the new communications were short and, in one case, offerd no comparison group. Further research could offer a longer follow up period and comparator groups.
• Generalisability/ transferability: The two pilot projects were London (UK) based and within the law/legal sector focusing on context-specific communications. While the specific solutions designed and trialled may not be applicable in other context, the research offers a more generalisable approach to developing communications for use in the debt advice sector.