Popularity of Site
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is regarded as a secure place to view the latest news and information on tax and insurance. It also is the place to look for up to date pension advice. The Registered Pension Schemes Manual (RPSM) is a comprehensive guide to registered pension schemes and is part of the site that is just outside the top 100 most viewed in the UK*.
Site Design
When you go to the page, the initial reaction is: Where is all the information? Then you see that there are three links relating to individuals & employers, employers and businesses and corporations. As is seemingly the case with government websites, a no-frills approach is preferred. There is a single small picture of a person on each of the three linked pages, but little else in way of design. Instead you are faced with white screen and blue or green lettering which doesn’t make things necessarily easy to read.
Site Design
The focus of this site is unclear, as it offers links to information about everything related to business and employment such as VAT, Corporation Tax. While this is all important information, it makes it very hard to find pension-specific advice. In fact, there is no indication that the three links at the top of the page don’t actually relate to pensions, so you could waste unnecessary time on these areas.
When you do eventually realise that only the links on the bottom of the page relate to pensions, you find that the content is actually very good. The problem is that there is only a small section that helps with pension advice. Unfortunately, each link is numbered in a obtuse manner such as RPSM8200010. This is off-putting and is not conducive to easy discovery. Each pension information page lists a question, and when you click on it, it gives you a short answer and a link to further information.
Our Summary
The site is written in a clear, business-like manner, but you have to wonder why a government site deems it to be a good idea to make it such a frustrating journey to find the requisite information. While the content is excellent, the sheer difficulty of finding it completely defeats the purpose of having such information in the first place. Certainly, more work is needed to make this site more palatable to the public.
External Link to HMRC RPSM
*statistics sourced from alexa
