Help to Save wins hat-trick of awards at The Financial Services Forum Product and Service Innovation Awards

We are pleased to announce that Help to Save won three awards at The Financial Services Forum Product and Service Innovation Awards 2019 on Thursday 23 May, in the categories of Financial Inclusion, Investments and Customer Service.

Help to Save is a government-based savings account to help working households on low incomes to build their savings. This scheme is delivered by NS&I Government Payment Services (NS&I GPS) (the B2B department of NS&I working jointly with Atos to deliver banking and payment services to government departments) together with HM Revenue & Customs, HM Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions.

This is a true testament of the fantastic collaborative teamwork of Atos, NS&I GPS and three government departments which led to the service launch in September 2018. The programme passed all three Government Digital Service assessments first time and met all 18 standards; and the programme was held as ‘an exemplar’ in an Office of Government Commerce Readiness for Service Review.

John Ainsworth, COO BTS, Atos says:

“It is fantastic news that the Help to Save programme has been recognised externally winning three awards. This is superb recognition for everyone who has been involved with the programme on both sides of the partnership in delivering this key government initiative.”

Noel Smith, Head of Customer Experience and Engagement BTS, Atos says:

“The key to this outstanding success was the collaborative team working across the programme which resulted in an outcome that was designed with and for customers leveraging our Customer Experience (CX) team.

The CX team led on the design and testing of all the customer journeys and the upfront validation of the design has ensured that all targets have been exceeded. This testing with over 150 customers across 17 locations in the UK was carried out exploring key journeys, probing user needs and behaviours around savings goals, barriers and financial comprehension.

Prototypes were tested on the users’ own device which ranged from top-of-the-range smartphones/tablets to mobile phones without internet access.

Government Digital Service requires the service to be inclusive for all users to ensure accessibility and usability. The customer feedback and our evolutionary development approach has created a truly customer-centric design.”

Dax Harkins, B2B Director, NS&I GPS, commented:

“The Help to Save programme demonstrated a strong collaborative approach across departments that enabled a successful public launch and very positive customer feedback. As such it’s a clear example of how we can work in partnership with other government departments to help successfully deliver policy objectives for government.”