[maxcbc]

I’m biased, I used to work at GDS.

The lack of a ‘login’ button is a huge issue IMHO, but the main blocker to it isn’t the tech teams, its at the ministerial/senior civil service level.

The problem isn’t the button itself but the infrastructure behind it. I.e. it requires a single database of users (i.e. a national register of citizens).

This needs doing, but politicians come out in hives because it involves setting up a system similar to national ID cards (politically difficult). Senior civil servants dislike it because its a question of which department owns it, if its GDS its the cabinet office, and that means the Home Office, DWP, HMRC surrendering some control (i.e. being increasingly dependent on external systems), which is something departments seem to dislike.

It’d save millions (billions probably) in the long run, but there isn’t the political will to do it. It would need an influential cabinet minister to push it through and would take 3-5 years to get properly embedded.

[pja]

Finding where to login for SA is the one frustration I have with SA right now. Everything else works really smoothly, but I have to resort to Googling "self assessment login" every time.

Solving this doesn't require a unified login - it needs proper signposting within gov.uk of the most likely user flows. Right now, finding the login for SA is something like 5 levels deep within the hiearchy of pages, and even then it's not well signposted.

gov.uk -> "Money and Tax" -> "Self Assessment" -> "Register for and file your Self Assessment tax return" -> Sign In

Having to choose "Money and Tax" and then "Self Assessment" is fine. But then you're faced with an enormous menu of choices, only the 19th of which leads to a login prompt. Once you've reached that page, "Sign In" isn't even at the top of the page - it's below the fold on my 1440 pixel high screen!

Just putting common tasks at the top of the list, with everything alphabetised underneath for when you're looking for something specific would make a huge difference.

[maxcbc]

I get what you’re saying I have the same problem with SA, but the key is better personalisation, which login can help with.

Gov.uk provides hundreds of services, like SA, which each user will only use a small subset of. That subset will be different for each user. I now need SA whereas 5 years ago prominently signposting that would have been useless to me. For others education services, welfare services and health should be highlighted. All this is quite difficult without knowing who is accessing the site.

Though In the specific case of SA, I think its not as well conceived a service as it can be. 95% of the time i’m not ‘registering for self assessment’ or ‘filing a self assessment tax return’ , i’m ‘checking what tax i owe’

[kwhitefoot]

> it involves setting up a system similar to national ID cards

No it doesn't. We have a register of everyone resident or tax paying here in Norway and no ID cards. The government keeps on trying to make ID cards happen but the relevant departments always seem to be dragging their feet.

You already have a national register in the UK: National Insurance numbers. The difficulty is that it is simply not properly joined up with taxes, banking, etc.

I very much doubt that there is any serious political objection to joining these databases amongst the general public; as you say the civil service departments feathering their own nests is the biggest problem.

[maxcbc]

Its seen as setting up a system similar to national ID cards.

Weirdly National Insurance numbers are not always unique, and people can have more than one. Also while they are used by for tax and benefits (HMRC and DWP) other departments have a different ID number, the biggest being NHS numbers, military service numbers, passport numbers and driving license numbers (DHSC, MOD, Home Office, Department for Transport). So you’d need to unify it, under one of these, effectively creating a ‘National ID Number’, even if you don’t call it that it’d be spun as that by opponents (libertarians, big brother watch etc). You’re probably right in that the public probably aren't too worried about it, and would probably be appalled to see the waste that goes on as a result of it not existing. But politicians and parts of the media will get riled up by it.

[kwhitefoot]

> would probably be appalled to see the waste that goes on as a result of it not existing.

There's no probably about it. I breath a sigh of relief every time I get back home to Norway after visiting family in the UK (which I left 34 years ago). So much is just simpler here.