New State Pension direct mail trial evaluation
Ipsos conducted a randomised control trial into State Pension communications on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). In November 2014, DWP sent out a letter to a random sample of individuals with low National Insurance contributions who were approaching State Pension age. The letter informed them of the changes to their State Pension. Ipsos carried out a random probability telephone survey of individuals who were sent the letter (test group) and an equivalent group (control group) who were not, to assess the impact of the letter. Among the findings, those who received the direct mail were more likely to have at least heard that the ‘current basic and additional State Pension will be replaced by a new State Pension’ (56% amongst the test group vs. 44% in the control group). The survey also revealed that the letter did appear to drive increased awareness of the link with National Insurance contributions, awareness of empowerment to affect amounts received, and a sense of how changes will affect them personally. However, the letter did not have any impact on other measures, including perceived knowledge of where to go to find out more about the State Pension. Technical details Ipsos conducted a total of 2,289 interviews; 1,160 with those who had received the direct mail letter and 1,129 with those who received an alternative opt-out letter which did not mention the changes to the State Pension. Interviews were conducted by telephone between 3rd December 2014 and 25th January 2015. Data for both the test and control groups were weighted to ensure they matched the profile of those originally issued letters (this profile information was recorded on the original HMRC-provided customer data used as the overall sample frame for both the test and control groups). Weighting was applied by gender and, within this, age (banded in terms of proximity to State Pension age), by number of qualifying years of National Insurance contributions, and by region. The survey report can be found on the Department for Work and Pensions website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-state-pension-direct-mail-trial-evaluation
