Caveat: this is not a technical description of how the Gateway works. Nor does it cover the behind-the-scenes services that the Gateway provides in terms of messaging and interoperation between various government systems. But it is my description of the way it works at the front end–the signing-on bit–of government services. Because that’s where it’s most apparent, and that’s the bit that’s often misunderstood. I wrote this because I haven’t been able to find such a description anywhere else on the Internet. Which is slightly odd (isn’t it?) given that the Gateway has been around for about ten years.
For a service that plays a part in millions of online public service transactions a year, the Government Gateway is surprisingly poorly understood, and described. What you can find online varies from the noble attempt (but not exactly functionally descriptive) to the flamboyant, to the technical, and on to the slightly bizarre.
But nothing in plain language that really sets out what’s going on. And, perhaps, what isn’t. I have something of a fascination around the mechanics of authorisation and authentication, particularly when applied to government services, so here goes.
You want to a use a service that has the gateway sign-on apparatus at its front-end. Like Income Tax Self-Assessment. So you go to HMRC’s Self-Assessment service and register as a new, Individual, user (as opposed to an Organisation, Agent or Pensions administrator). Very quickly you’re taken through a brief request for your name and a password, a few warnings about the seriousness of what you’re about to do and the type of documentation you’ll need with you later on, and behold: a big long formal 12-digit User ID pops up. 848355815693 is the one I just registered.
Shriek! Did I just put my Gateway User ID out there on the Internet? Why, yes I did. (We’ll come back to why that doesn’t matter in a moment.) HMRC are now asking me to continue through the process and ‘enrol’ in the service. But we’ll pause there for the moment.
The Government Gateway uses an approach called “Registration and Enrolment” (R&E). First you have to register for a User ID (we just did that). Then you have to enrol in the various services you want to use with it. Enrolment means you go through a process, specific to the service you’re trying to use, of giving proof of who you are and that you’re entitled to use the service. Leaving it up to the service to decide how much proof is needed is a really good thing, surely? No avalanche of information required to use a simple, low-value, low-risk service? We’ll see…
In theory, therefore, you can add more and more services to your ID, leading to what becomes a single sign-on for lots of services, using the same User ID and password. In theory.
The great genius of the Gateway R&E design is that it does the reverse of what you’d expect. Instead of trying to be all secure up front–insisting you prove entitlement and identity straight away–it wilfully ignores all that and gives you a wholly anonymous, “throwaway” ID number. You can go and get as many as you like. Try it yourself, now. Really, go and do it a few times. You can either do it via hmrc.gov.uk (just my little joke) or at the Gateway’s own site. They both work the same way.
It was once memorably described by a much cleverer colleague as “an insecure keyring to which you can attach secure keys”. (Great, until you need to find your keyring.)
The great folly of R&E is that it is utterly pointless, unsupportable, and ultimately valueless for normal people in real life. Have you spotted the gaping holes yet? Before we expose them in more detail, let’s quickly look at enrolment.
For HMRC self-assessment the enrolment process is the bit where you enter your Tax Reference Number and a few other bits of identifying information. And then you wait. For a PIN to arrive in the post. As a means of confirming you are who you say you are, before you can go any further. Not quite a seamless electronic transaction there, then. In the days leading up to Jan 31st the post seems to move very slowly indeed. And you might lose that 12-digit number in the meantime.
DVLA have a twist on the process: not for them the “give us a name and here’s your ID” approach. Oh no. They ask for lots of other qualifying information, name, address, Date of Birth, Passport Number, and—of course—money before they get to the bit where they spit out your new provisional driving licence. Not bad, really.
They’ve almost masked the presence of the Gateway entirely. There’s a question at the very beginning saying: “While applying, you’ll be issued with a Government Gateway user ID. If you already have a Government Gateway User ID, simply enter it with your password.” And if you haven’t, can’t remember it, or can’t be bothered—don’t fret, you can just get another one.
Getting a sinking feeling about the value of this User ID yet? (And actually, people will fret. They will spot this sort of “do I/don’t I need to…” ambiguity and it will delay or put off some people from using the service.) Doubt is something you really want to design out of online transactions.
So, behind the scenes, DVLA just went and generated you another Gateway User ID. One you’ll probably never need again, and one which carries no security risk, but isn’t necessarily anything to do with your other Gateway relationships. Unless you happened to have a previous one to hand when you applied. (I’d love to see some stats on how many do this, by the way.)
So, let’s look at what’s really bad about all this (and I stress again that I am talking about the user experience of the Gateway as a front end to transactions: Gateway R&E. Not about the back-end messaging standards which also form part of the Gateway suite of services):
1. Unsupportable. You can’t find your Gateway ID or password: what do you do? No point approaching the Government Gateway team—they don’t know who you are. They only recorded a name and password (which you might have lost). If you’re going to start resetting passwords and handing out IDs by email you need some better checks than that. They don’t have any information to check against. (And you’ve probably spawned several by now as you’ve been navigating through various online services. Which one have you lost?) So you approach HMRC, or whoever you need to deal with at the time. And they ask for your Tax Reference Number. Because your relationship is with them and that’s how they know you. The Gateway adds no value.
2. Take-up. Despite a bit of official posturing about it being government’s preferred online transaction authentication solution, and a few high-profile services which incorporate the front-end bit in some inconsistent way, most services routinely ignore it. Look at this service list: and this service has been operating for how many years, and has had how much spent on it? The Gateway is routinely ignored at the front end because it adds no value.
3. Lack of transparency or challenge. Try and find another piece like this on the internet that explains what’s going on and casts a critical eye over value. People seem remarkably reticent to discuss something that is a pretty big feature on the government technology landscape. If they do praise it, it looks like this, emphasising the benefits to service providers of using its protocols and messaging, but glossing over the broken stuff with phrases like “allows citizens to have one user ID and password”. Yes. In theory. Oh pur-lease.
4. It’s not Your Account for Government. It never can be. It’s designed not to be. This is a particularly pernicious failing. It raises expectations that it should, somehow, be a single connection point between citizen and state online. When it’s compromised, we panic. When it fails to add any value, we’re disappointed. We’ve been, effectively, duped into thinking some sort of useful, usable functionality has been added. It hasn’t.
5. It fundamentally misreads individual user behaviour online. People do share and lose their IDs and passwords. Putting in a wait for the postman does result in everything having to be redone, and in sapping user confidence in government’s online services. The situation is slightly better for businesses, and I will concede that for business-facing transactions (and for accountants, agents and other intermediaries), Gateway R&E probably does add some value. But there’s a hell of a difference between employing someone whose job it is to get these processes right, and providing services to individuals.
One can see why Gateway R&E had some attractions: ten years ago, when it started, there was massive political pressure to bring public services online. Earlier attempts to build a secure authentication framework across all services had foundered (and still do, see numerous other posts here on this). This half-way house created a way in which the press and public could be fed stuff like that BCS line above, and we public could be left to pick up the pieces of a miserable, broken, user experience.
A value-adding single sign-on experience can be yours. If only you don’t do stupid stuff like lose passwords, IDs, or a strange little card we send you, and if you can manage to navigate around the workarounds (like that DVLA “if you already have…” stuff) that we have to build into every service to make them actually get used.
Time for a few pointed questions and FOIs, I think. Because this is fundamentally difficult territory, I think it’s had a bit of an easy ride.
Its as bad as you describe it. It really is. The boss goes mad when she has to use it and has a big pile of paper with numbers on it. Once she’s in she gets a cup of tea and gets on with it. But I hide under the desk until she gets logged in. She uses it for CTS online cattle database, VAT and RPA. She says the RPA are moving to Business Link logins in March and she says that will be even worse as they are from the same mindset. Jobs for the boys she says. Wuff.
I have a document containing all my Gateway IDs, passwords and which services work or otherwise with each.
It is a complete farce compared with the likes of Amazon where I can spend a lot more with a hell of a lot less hassle.
I’ll second that. It’s really poor on the UX front and the wait for the post is a joke. Round of applause for raising this.
I got an Government Gateway ID six or seven years ago and have been so embarrassed about losing it (and not interested in waiting for the postman again) that I gave up filling my taxes online! A poor faulty process certainly can put you off!
Hi Paul
… well you can guess where the “friendly” user ID came from (look a little further to the West). And there’s a contradiction at the heart of the Gateway’s design which doesn’t help, but which was there for a good reason: to offer single sign-on across government services, but also to allow people to have different User IDs for each service if they wanted. The latter for those who did not want a single system to have an overview of all their dealings with government.
Of course, back in the heady days of the dotcom boom of the late 1990s – when both the idea of a single government portal and a single authentication and transaction engine seemed a good idea – the Government Gateway was meant to be invisible. Ideally it would never have issued any User IDs. The original intent was that the smartcards that the Post Office and others were about to roll out would be used by citizens and businesses alike. The role of the Gateway was merely to enable users (if they wished) to link together their various government services to one login ID. Then reality intervened, the bubble burst and no-one was out there issuing smartcards and other authentication tokens. Stepping into the gap were the Gateway’s, er, “memorable” User IDs.
Less mentioned is that the Gateway also provides a single transaction engine that can receive “intelligent forms” (ie those that span multiple departments and transactions) and then control the business logic of breaking them into separate backend forms and managing them across multiple departments and services. The user would then have “joined-up” front office services even if the back office of government, as it does, remained silod at the backend. Of course, we’ve not seen many of those “intelligent forms” in reality (in fact, are there *any*?): departments have remained silos and even though proving it all worked was done back in 1998/1999 for the iForms project nothing much seems to have happened since.
Well, the lipstick stuck on the pig has grown even less attractive with the passing years. The last decade saw little happen with transforming the backends and processes of online government. As ever, between the aspirational vision and the reality fell the shadow.
With the work of Stefan Brands, Kim Cameron and organisations like Mydex you could achieve what was desired on the authentication front without needing a Gateway at all today. It could all be done through citizen-controlled identity and personal data without any central service. It could all be much simpler, easier and under direct citizen control. Less costly, more user friendly. Hard to see the downside really.
I don’t think anyone expected the Gateway to be there in much the same form over 10 years after it was first created. It was meant to be a stepping stone not a destination.
It’s time for a long overdue update in the way authentication and transaction handling happens across online government services. A better way of making that happen already exists. What is less clear is who owns making this happen. Maybe the new ICT strategy when it emerges will say when this is going to happen, and when …?
Jerry
It always easy to look back and find issue. But you have to look at the system in the light of the technology that was around then. We can all point at the wonders of facebook and amazon etc and try and find out where we went wrong. But it was just not like that then.
A few pointers on the Gateway R&E
1) The issue was not a GW one but a department one. The need to get services online was clear. But there were two choices. Have each dept force you to have a user id and password owned by the depts. For each service you would have had a new credential and of course all the issues of losing those (and getting them replaced). This was deemed to be indefensible at the time and so the aim that to do business with Gov should allow you (if you wanted) to have one user id and pwd.
2) Jerry is right. The ideal was for the private sector to pick this up and issue the credentials. They never did.
3) The enrolment problem was nothing to do with the GW. The issue of entitlements to access personal data required you to prove your entitlement. But the department’s quality of data was so poor that they could not provide the answers to the questions for the users to answer to prove who they were. No post route was needed. It was a failing of the depts data that forced this route. The technology and user experience was in from day one to do the non post route.
4) The 2nd dept data issue was that they could not join up citizens or businesses. They had no way of knowing the person with a SA reference was the same person in DWP with the NI no. Even when they tried to data match they found the % of errors so high that if they tried to automate then there would be a good % of people going online and getting other people’s data.
The GW was just as you outlined. It was a way for government to start to unite a range of services and individuals through this process as they could not do it by sharing data sets or matching.
The issue overall is that it has not moved on or adapted over the years. So less worry about the original solution and more worry as to why it was never evolved. But then look at the services any dept offers. Few are any better than the original paper form put online.
it’s a big mess. I recently signed up for self employment and this gateway is a pain. No confirmation sent, in fact I got an error message at the end of registration, so wasn’t even sure if it worked. Finally it worked after being given the run around by HMRC. So I thought.
Now I cannot enrol services to the account as apparently the information HMRC sent me does not match the information HMRC holds. Well, what the self employment section of government holds.
A mess, and utterly off putting to anybody wishing to set up self employed. I would have had am easier life on the dole.
This service is a joke. A waste of government resources. Pointless in the extreme. A total waste of time that has been dreamed up by some new freshly out of uni jobs worth to collect brownie points and to show his or her bosses they can be just as useless as some other tea slurping desk bound twit in the civil service. Can anybody tell me of what use this “service” can be
I have now finally managed to enrol the service. Yes, not bad navigation, but there is still something wrong with regards to the details held.
I do have a couple of questions with regards to the article. It is my understanding, if you forget your gateway ID, yes it is easy to set up another online using the same details, but it still won’t provide access to all the rnolled services since the ID| is different. Using your analogy, you can get a new key ring, but the set of keys will not be the same. You will, like in any other part of society have to re submit any details to again enrol on services would you not. Lose a key to your front door, you can get a new key, but not before you hand over proof you live there.
Isn’t the ID system just a small layer of security, never designed to be full proof?
As useless as I find it all and very annoying to get up and running and enrolling on services, you surely wouldn’t be able to access my stuff by setting up a new ID on gateway would you?, You would have to then enrol for the services again, requiring the details?
It is frightening though to think, all someone would need would be the ID and password and kaboom.
I don’t know, it has been a frustrating process, the online team I would sack, they are essentially pointless, let us be honest. They can never deal with anything which requires some personal info be needed. Well since the whole bloody thing requires some personal info, they are null and void.
I do like the telephone service though, to give credit where it is due. Tax office, another thing which I also think is useless these days. A number of people in a similar boat to me, went to the office to only be told you have to ring. Is there really even a point to these people.
The Government Gateway is the most amateurish, useless, waste of money I have ever seen. I was forced to use it to change my address on my driving licence and received my ID card through the post. Next time I try to log on my password is rejected (but I am sure it was correct I am very good at keeping passwords secure and available).So I attempted to retrieve it using the built in service. What do you know the system tells me there is no such email/Id registered on the system. That’s strange as I have the original emails from the system and the Card with the ID number printed on it. To back this up I have the confirmation email they sent me which agrees with the card. But Ok so now I am told to contact the help desk but nowhere does it give me a link or any details of a help desk. A little checking I find a list of help desks but none for the DVLA.
So what is this shit-pile of a service worth? absolutely nothing. The best thing the government can do is take it off line and imagine that it never existed because it sure is not secure and is one hell of a waste of money. But then that’s what our government is good at wasting money.
I have now shredded my gateway card, deleted the emails and removed any reference in my records to the appalling service and hope that I never have to deal with it again. But I would love to meet the Guy/Girl who conned the government out of the millions this system cost to build just to congratulate them on a great sting.
It’s utterly crass and infuriating. I’ve tried 3 times now and failed the 2 week process of giving up SIX pieces of information just to get to Self Assessment. That’s NI number, HMRC ref no, email address, password, User ID and then the ten day wait for the postman. SAVE TIME DO IT ON LINE. Joke.
Every other institution from Bank to Retailer tells me not to write down any passwords, yet this lamentable phone support have told me i should keep everything written down.
This is another rule made up by bureaucrats to make life easier for themselves.
Apart from a number of moslems who all have the same names, they have all the info on computer.
Why should the white indigenous population be discriminated against.
Trying to submit my tax return has been so stressful. It’s the biggest pile of crap built online – Government should be ashamed.
I suppose it’s a great way to rack up extra cash with all the fines they rake in. All mostly due to the lie that it is an online system.
They should be banned from saying its online. It’s not. Get a password / get a UTR code sent by horse and carriage – wait for it – get an activation code sent to your home to submit once you have accessed with your UTR code.
Did anyone do any user testing? ANYONE?
It’s a relief to find I’m not the only person finding the GG incredibly frustrating.
I’ve just spent two hours going round in circles, and I’m a web developer. What chance do less IT-literate people have?
I’ve even gone to the effort of writing feedback based on my straightforward use-case, what went wrong for me, and offering advice on the basics of information architecture and UX. Not because I have the time, I don’t, I am just incredibly frustrated that something as fundamental as dealing with the government about taxes etc, is so painful to do.
Alas, no contact details for the GG to send my feedback to, aarrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!
After going round in circles trying to do my taxes online and not being able to get in to the Gateway system using my User ID I started to think hang on a minute this can’t be me. A search “reviews on using Government Gateway” brought me to your article and subsequent comments.
I’m glad you took the time Paul to put your observations on your blog.
Thanks for helping me understand that the User ID I have is for a DVLA issue. This system is annoying. Yes the technology wasn’t there when it was set up – it is now time for an upgrade or a complete rethinking.
I wanted to do my taxes online, I’m just going to do them on paper. I lived in the States for some years and did those taxes online – it was a breeze. Doing taxes can be stressful for some folks, having to go through hoops to do it just adds to it.
completely agree, and glad I’m not the only one having problems. Its a total joke. No wonder the government has such a large deficit when the spend their money developing cr*p like this.
Grrr, what a useless service. And makes me more angry as I pay tax, for this??
They force you to register – I only wanted to renew my driving licence. They send me a stupid code, through the post – that yes, you guessed it doesn’t work.
Ok, perhaps my password is wrong, I’ll try another, and another until I realise that it may be easier to set up a new one. Looks like it should work, they have all the right buttons – yep ‘forgotten password?’, but a totally misleading option. Takes me to another page of services (and yes mine isn’t listed). No I want a new password, so go back to the page. Try again, list of services again. Oh no I ‘m caught in a horrble trap and getting cross!
Search site for ‘contact us’. Aha – clever you .GOV, you really don’t want us contacting you, silly me should know how to ‘self-serve’, but the system is broken, dysfunctional and a terrble customer experience. If you were not the governement and had a monopoly on certain services I would never use you again, but yep, I’m stuffed. I have to use your stupid flabby services.
Only solution is to go back to old off-line, pedestrian channels that work, as you deal with a real person. Perhaps a good thing in these hard times, would rather secure the position of a real person, trying to make an honest living, than support a system no doubt being supported by some huge, over-priced consultancy!
Thanks for wasting 30 mins of my life, that I’ll never get back .gov.
The card will be cut up, and filed in the shredder. I will go back to offline thank you very much.
Save time trying to file yourself and use an accountant. We can help complete the tax return for you instead of you trying to sort this out yourself and getting frustrated.
I know I could read the manuals to fix my own car but it would take too much time and frustration even if it saved me money so I take mine to the garage and make sure it’s done properly.
I registered for the government gateway two weeks ago for tax self assessment. Tried to log back in today using the user ID and password to register for VAT, but it wouldn’t work. Phoned the ‘help’desk who said that I couldn’t log back in until my activation code and unique tax payment code came through, which will take 4-6 weeks!!!
I explained I needed to bill people in that time and provide a VAT number. They told me to phone the VAT helpline, which I did, and was told that all the lines were busy so to phone back at another time or go online. Grrrrrr.
I was under the impression that the UK government were trying to encourage people to set up on their own to stimulate the economy. Quite frankly, this is enough to put anyone off trying.
I’m going to take the advice of other posters and apply by post…
If it is technical and contains security and it is run by the government then stay away, what a total fxxxing joke. After not using the self assessment site for a few years I naturally havent got my user id or password. They have to mail you a user id and then you have to request a password when you receive the mail. It is ludicrous, I forgot my online banking details and was back online making transactions within minutes…the government cannot run a pissup in a brewery..oh and to request the new user id I was on the phone for 25 minutes…if i had a gun i would have blew my fuxxing brains out….rant over…
can someone help me,i sent off for a licence they gave me a government gateway user id and i had a password but when i sign in it says i’m not eligible for this service.can someone tell me what this means?
Hi there – I can’t offer any useful support through this site, as I’m nothing to do with government, but I sympathise with the difficulties you’re having. The Gateway seems remarkably good at throwing up strange errors or multiple relationships. I’m going through a similar problem with it myself, involving the Ministry of Justice.
Got my ID, got my password. I’m trying to find a job via this GW……can I get pass login? Nope. Shoot me now
Well guys I agree, HMRC is a farce, any commercial organsation would have gone bankrupt by now.
Tax year payment Jan 2011 I tried to pay self assessment online; HMRC said I didn’t exist, yet I had all the I.D’s etc. So being a good citizen I submitted a paper copy and paid tax up front, and received an acknowledgement. Same thing happened in 2012, so another paper copy, and another cheque.
Yet HMRC say I haven’t submitted a return for two years and have fined me £1,200.00.
But last week they sent me a statement (good nes I’m in credit); so dumbo if I haven’t submitted a Return how come you sent me a credit statement?
Hey, you bumble heads in HMRC get real and stop wasting our hard earned taxes.
See you in court!
Have been trying to log in to Gateway for over a week without success. Have received new Gateway id can’t remember password…Now says it can’t send me new password because I’ve recently received one???..So now impossible to log in. Help desk unable/unwilling to help. Received activation code but no info on where to enter it. Have now given up. I am an ex IT professional..A cynic might think this is being done on purpose so that when everything goes on line nobody will be able to access any services.
I too cannot get in. Does anyone know when you initially log in to do self assessment whether you need a 6 digit password or do you use the 12 digit password? From memory I think the 12 digit one is used later in the process. Have tried to log in using both of these – no success! Please help me now someone! Am nervous about going thru the process of asking for a new password because which will they send me – the 6 digit one or the 12 digit one?
I should stress that this post has no official standing – although I’ve done various jobs that have related to the Gateway’s function, I wrote this just to give an idea of what’s actually going on. And one of those big downfalls, as you’re realising, is that support is pretty much impossible when the central Gateway, *by design*, has absolutely no idea who you are. I’m sorry it’s so awful – you’re only point of redress is with the department who actually run the transaction – i.e. HMRC for tax self-assessment and so on. I really do hope a brighter future for identity assurance is on the way.
Its 29th January and I have had to send off for a new PIN. Not likely it will arrive before 31st. What an utterly terrible system.
Been using gg for a couple of years without a problem, doing my vat return tonight, system doesn’t recognise me, can’t get my ID as I’m not recognised and therefore no password etc.. Try to ring up and they are busy and phone goes dead, if I am lucky they might apparently send me a new user ID and password after my deadline for vat return expires and I will get a fine for being late, or as it stands nothing is recognised and I will continue to spend hours of my life trying to get through to someone to sort this mess out. I’ve missed putting my 3 year old to bed and hours shouting at the gg website in frustration, not sure what my crime is as I haven’t changed my details and have double checked them with emails and letters sent out, and with my accountant, but they aren’t accepted and I will bet a penalty. That’ll teach me! I won’t do that again, although apart from being an honest individual trying to pay my bloody tax on time I am not sure what I shouldn’t do. In short I agree with most of the comments on this site which state the obvious – gg is a pathetic embarrassment to our ailing nation, and just another kick in the nuts for its citizens who deserve better, and I am pretty sure the Germans don’t have such a crap system because they wouldn’t .
Hi,
Her is a howto for the following scenario:
1 You have a working ID and password for HMRC (SA Online or whatever)
2 You want to sign up for Jobsearch (which can be signed into with an EXISTING Gateway ID)
3 You have no idea what your original Gateway ID was.
4 Go to the Government Gateway sign up page.
5 Enter the government Gateway.
6 Select the link for Forgotten User ID
7 Choose the option to reset using the service you already have access to – for example SA Online
8 Enter your password – email – and UTR
9 Submit – note down the first half of your GG user ID
10 The 2nd half of the GG User ID will be emailed to you
11 Be aware that any spaces within the GG User ID are significant. The email with the second half of the ID implies a structure of nnnn_nnnn_nnnn BUT it looks as if the user ID field is actually only 13 characters. In my case the 1st half of the user id was nnnnnn with the second half being nn_nnnn which should be concatenated to become nnnnnnnn_nnnn.
This worked for me, and I hope it may help someone else to save some time and possibly preserve their sanity.
Thanks to Paul Clarke for the original Blog!
I am sorry you all seem to be having so much trouble with this. My wife wanted a pension forecast. Registered last week and kept her password and id in a secure place. The Activation Code arrived yesterday. She logged in this morning and printed off her pension forecast – in all – took about 4 minutes from start to finish. What are you all doing wrong?
@Phil
Yes, many services do work perfectly well as designed. And you’d generally expect to see more stories about what didn’t, because that’s what prompts people to seek help and search for posts like this one.
But, taking your comment at face value, there are a couple of points to make in response.
Firstly: a sign of good design is not how well a service works when it works, but how well it performs when something goes wrong. For example, because of the way the Gateway is designed, which means your identity is essentially an anonymous thing to which you attached verified relationships, if you want to go back to a central point to find out why something isn’t working, or perhaps why you’ve ended up with two Gateway identities, then you can’t. By definition, the operators of the central Gateway infrastructure have no idea who you are. That’s one example of a weakness that leads to a lot of the problem stories.
Secondly: the effort required to make it work seems disproportionate to some people in contrast to using online services to buy and sell other things. A token sent by post? Taking four days to arrive? When I only want to carry out some transaction I don’t really want to do anyway? The fact is that government identity interaction is always going to be heavier and clunkier than general e-commerce. Why? Because the consequences of a data loss are infinitely more damaging to public trust, because often nobody cares who they sell things to, but if you’re trying to access a benefit then there’s a massive incentive to ensure you don’t hand out money to the wrong person. I could go on.
It’s not a great piece of design; it frequently baffles its users, but I’m glad your transaction went well.
Received DWP identity verification activation code. I entered both password and id to enter the Gateway but cannot find from that point which webpage or service I select to actually complete the ‘activation’ of the code. Can anybody throw any light n this?? Poor webpage design!!!
I managed to get on to the DWP site, eventually, but now I have received a letter with my “Memorable Information Activation Code” details. The letter says I ‘must’ activate this within the next 28 days but it doesn’t say where to activate it! I have gone onto the site, logged in and played around but there is just no help in how or where to activate this.
Grateful for any advice on this
Frustrated
Shocking…Until I read the above comments I thought I might have been hallucinating whilst painstakingly navigating the gov.uk/ direct.gov/ dvla/ register here/ register there pages. Brilliant.
Totally agree. Government Gateway is a pile of shite. I still have not received a password from them. Everytime I phone up they say they’ll send me one but just send an ID reminder NOT a password!
Great article. I’m glad it’s not just me who gets frustrated by the “Government Gateway”.
[…] How the Government Gateway works […]
Absolutely Hopeless even a leaking sieve has some virtue. I like other people , registered some time ago. Lost password, asked for password. Got password 7 days later. received password. logged in.Nothing happened!phoned up, they told me my browser. had been ticked for ‘remember my password’ That, being I said, then if it remembers my password, I should be in right! “Oh no you have to reset it, not to remember passwords” “O.K” said I and unchecked the box, saying ” Remember password” and duly tried again. Nothing happened…. It reminds me of a time, that Raymond Baxter appeared on spoof ‘Tomorrows World’on the show the Goodies, when Raymond tried to demonstrate a new electrical circuit, made entirely from string!.
Tried Phoning again today, after no luck in logging in yesterday spent half an hour with the phone on hold all that time. No one answers, must have got through by shear luck the other day, though that had been 20 minutes. Tried to look for an address to write to on the internet, but the entire set up appears to be surreptitious.There is no address, who are they hiding from? their customers? I’d like to write a letter and strap to a snail, to see if this resolution will be any quicker! What hopeless frustrating mess! Do they prosecute me for not submitting any details, when I can’t get through….What happens?
Tried yet again today on the premise that even a Phuq’d clock is right at least twice a day, so I thought I would treat this a a dear diary of how completely frustratingly futile, anything run by the Government appears to be. If had registered the same commitment to my job,as the Government Gateway seems to, no doubt I’d be fired, but ho hum….Wasn’t it Churchill who said “It’s like putting yourself in bucket and lifting yourself by the bucket handle” On the phone for half an hour today.Kept on hold until eventually I was cut off….. This is the kind of organisation that the word ‘pants’is an understatement!
Out of interest Phil, what service are you trying to use (I don’t mean the Gateway, I mean the end service, tax, benefits, motoring or whatever?)
And which number are you using (and to which organisation) to try and get help?
Hi There
Yes I have been given the user ID and duly downloaded my password which is yet another 12 digit alpha numeric code, all I want in life is to be able to register for corporation tax. I did manage to get through on just the one occasion, the rest of the time I’m usually cut off I had been given the 0300 200 3600 But generally I think I could possibly die of old age before I through..
Tried logging in for last three days now, tried putting gaps between numbers even tried the password they sent in the post, nothing happens. generally, this is what living in a vacuum must be like… Perhaps tomorrow I may spend my well earned money. Phoned the help desk which never picks up….Short of using a gas oven, I don’t think I can do much more,You can’t contact,,,,nothing there is no email system, it is devoid of life, hope, humanity. everything.At least tumbleweed moves,,,
Finally got through to a lone human voice today,explaining how I had attempted to log in for the past week using the Government Gateway. And guess what? I was told that it doesn’t work! Yep, it doesn’t work. The guy was really helpful and told me, not to use the Gateway service….Bot to log in through the HMRC website. I then had to reactivate and ask for a new password…But Hey It actually happened.Cannot believe it..Its just like unwrapping a turnip for Christmas. I have been barely able to contain my excitement!
Thanks for this very useful piece. I spent ages trying to retrieve the password for my gateway ID from DVLA and was very happy to be released from that tedious task and could start again for another government service without worrying about using the wrong one. Why don’t they just tell you that?!
Doesn’t really do what it says on the tin now does it.
After my first attempt at activating an online pension account, entering the correct code three times, and being told that I had entered it incorrectly, I was told to apply for a new code. When the new code arrived I attempted once more to activate the account. Frustratingly the outcome was identical so I used a free phone number to register for my pension and get a forecast of what I might expect to receive.
Believe me it was much more straightforward, involving clear advice, rapid feedback and even the occasional joke.
My conclusion? The Government Gateway is a particularly inefficient and unfunny joke which is, to quote the oft used cliche, “not fit for purpose”
I’m just trying to renew my over-70s driving licence. What a waste of time. I have my ID but the password, the password-resetting pages, the “memorable!” questions are all completely useless. I’ll try phoning the DVLA, if I can find a phone number. Otherwise I’ll just give up on the modern age, at 75!, and try mailing the stuff.
It’s terrible Harry. You have my utmost sympathies. Let’s just hope that the successor system fixes these gaping holes.
It’s hopeless. I am sitting here with my NI number, my UTR, my activation code (courtesy of the post) and my id., my password and quite possibly I might need the inside leg measurement of my father’s cousin’s dog – but I am going round in circles. I want to GIVE them information – not take the stuff. This is intolerable. Why are my taxes supporting the development and maintenance of a system that is actually setting out to PREVENT me having a relatively easy interaction with the government I elect and for which I pay? What looney thought this bag of nonsense up?
I agree that this Gateway system is just not good enough.
I thought I would be able to complete things with ease but previous efforts failed and today I tried again.
I actually qualify for my pension this coming week but have been unable to progress past the dreaded gateway system, in order to get things going.
It is a claim prevention tool as far as I can see
It really is just intolerable
David H
A few years back, I lost my driving licence, and applied for a replacement online. In the course of this I acquired a Government Gateway ID. All worked well; they even managed to pick up my passport photo to put on it.
Recently I received a letter from DWP inviting me to apply for my State Pension. “Go on, do it online, it’s really easy”. So I tried. “Enter your GG Id”. So I did, but couldn’t remember the password. Having tried a few of my frequently-used ones, I went for “Forgot my password”. Keyed in odd bits of additional data, pressed the button … “We couldn’t successfully identify your account from the details you provided.”
I tried going through a generic GG route. It failed again, and left me with a list of government departments I could try for help. Something about cattle subsidies, but nothing about DVLA.
So I applied for a new ID, and have just received my new activation code.
Enjoyed reading your remarks. Have just applied for a new diving licence, but was told I had incorrectly entered each of my three previous registration numbers + passwords (even though I know I got them right). So I had to register yet again! Have you noticed that there is no facility on the Gateway site to make comments and complaints. Perhaps they received so many that they have decided to disable such a facility if they ever had one.were
You will probably find that the password recognition fails as the Gateway software can’t handle the later versions of IE or Firefox or Google Chrome.
The workaround is to set you keyboard to capitals and then type in your password or the two new halves [if you have requested a new one thinking that the problem was that you were entering it incorrectly]
I echo Arthur Carden’s point re the lack of a feedback facility. I was using HMRC and decided I needed to change my password following the exposure of the heartbleed SSL flaw, but couldn’t find a mechanism on the HMRC site. Then I remembered that Govt Gateway is a separate system, found it and attempted to change my password. Would you believe that it will only accept letters and numbers and rejects special characters? It won’t allow users to set the most secure form of password, but I’ll bet if our passwords get hacked we’ll be blamed for it. If I employed a developer who designed a system like that I’d hand them their P45.
Government Gateway is painful to deal with. First time I forgot to activate the code I was panicking and deleted the account before I realized I can reapply, and since then I have registered so many times and didn’t get anywhere. I was searching for my tax payers reference number as the tax office didn’t send it out or I haven’t just received it, but without it I couldn’t log on GG as I also forgot the password and ID. All of them. Cause there was so many of them. Pain. Took half of my day now to realize this all is pointless.
What a totally pointless system, that was paid with my tax money!
ID that does not exist any more once you forgot it, as no way to retrieve it.
Not that any of the single services are any better. Take MoneyClaim Online. They use GG ID. But once you lost it there is no way to login. But apparently it does not matter, as everything is done by post. So why the **** GG exists in first place? I might do all by post after all.
Well, that’s how it works. As I’ve written, it has no idea who you actually are – just relying on subsequent interactions with departments to add some usefulness. Yes, it’s an appalling user experience when things go off the rails even slightly; the only possible argument in its defence is that it was the only feasible attempt at a solution at the time, could only have come into being by neglecting the hard issues of verification at the front door, and it has, albeit shonkily, enabled millions of online transactions. But never across services, in the way it was once hoped might evolve. (And actually that’s probably just as well given how awful the support issues would then have become…)
An unbelievably (did I just say that?) ‘system’, the sole purpose of which appears to be to foil the efforts of the manage the administration and processing of a range of crucial data/processes – adding no doubt to delays in the payment of ‘claims’. I’m not in any position to make comment regarding the technical suitability for purpose of any of the systems but the end result, if that’s what we should regard it as, has simply failed to be delivered – and what’s more, it has been funded over and over again by you and me. How many developers, writers of functional specifications, procurement heads of department and so on, ae we going to continue to fund, publicly praise for their efforts – and continue to reward for their abject and consistent failure to deliver?
I think the precise answer to that is: none. Because it’s going to be discontinued in favour of the replacement identity assurance service. See https://identityassurance.blog.gov.uk/ for more info.
I have a GGA that works successfully with my Inland Revenue log-in. This time around I decided to use it to renew my driving licence as I have recently renewed my passport and there is a current digital photo of me in their system. (It claims to be able to pick this up in these circumstances.) So I opened up the DVLA site to renew my driving licence and when prompted, typed in my GGA code and password, Rejected, Did this twice and told each time it was invalid and on second occasion that if I did it once more I would be logged out. So I went back to the Inland Revenue Site and typed it in again, and bingo straight through. Go Figure.
I think I have figured out my problem. I registered and was issued with a GG id and password, quite early on, in 2002, to submit my tax return online. At that time the id was 11 characters long. Since then it has changed to 12 characters (not sure exactly when), But the DVLA only recognises 12 character ids although the Inland Revenue still accepts my 11 character id without any difficulty. Presumably everyone who registered for an id in 2002 is considered too old to bother with by the DVLA..Go figure.
Well you actually bring attention to a fundamental issue at play, Hazel. The Gateway was designed so that the log-in credentials would never bear any relationship to the you-known-as-Hazel. Whether government systems continue to try and wash their hands of creating a pan-government ‘you’ – by attaching identity credentials, or passing off verification to a third party – or end up trying to create a central Hazel about which things are known, is the great challenge at the heart of identity system design. I should write another post drawing attention to this – especially in the light of recent Labour pronouncements about wanting more pervasive citizen relationships online (here we go with identity registers again, perhaps?). But I’m too busy trying to earn a living!
What a ridiculous system they’ve invented here. I’ve had a few brushes with the whole GG system before – various DVLA related things and a few other times. The whole thing is broken, fundamentally. It’s a single sign-on that doesn’t work properly across services, has no central or easy to understand way of resetting if you forget the password, and has an archaic snail-mail stage involved.
My most recent attempt at interacting with this monstrosity is through their Self Assessment website. I can’t for the life of me remember my password, and the only time I can recall using it explicitly otherwise is through the DVLA. The SA website simply states that they cannot give me a new password if I haven’t registered for one of 2 dozen services, and the DVLA website says I can reset my password provided I can give them 3 additional pieces of arbitrary information: ‘Memorable Date’, ‘Memorable Name’, and ‘Memorable Place’. This is insanity – I can’t remember any of this stuff as it was entered years ago, and on top of that I’m now locked out of the gateway!
Time to register another account and start this whole farce again!
Yup. Ridiculous. And yet – it ‘works’ for millions of transactions. (It fails and is unmanageable for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands more…) But there WAS no alternative when it was created. Not without taking that leap into deciding to have a very different citizen-government relationship. One that still has no political or popular support (once you do any sort of rigorous analysis on how it would actually work). So yes, it’s shit, but it was the only show in town.
Oh dear.
Yet another thing that the government managed to get so horrendously wrong, that it has spawned a chapter of it’s own in complaints via internet.
A system so smart it locks you out of your own account by design, then punishes you for being locked out!
In the four weeks since my initial comments, I have had occasion to contact the woefully inappropriately named ‘heldesk’ on four separate occasions relating to the system’s inability to recognise me upon my unsuccessfully attempted (but compulsory) access to the GG system fo purposes of continuing to prove that I’m actually looking for work. Most recently, the system locked me out indicating that my account has been suspended for reasons of security? Security? for a job-browsing service? The only value of this service to anyone other than those who developed it and those who continue to sing its praises, is that as long as it is required to be perpetuated, it keeps a heft cohort of IT-support staff from having to join the ranks of the ‘jobseekers’.
I tried to register via the Pension Service and when I went to enter my password, I noticed it wasn’t accepting some of the key strokes so – obviously- my password was not accepted! Ridiculous and a waste of time. I will have to get my Pension forecast the old fashioned way and print off the form!
I’m trying to find out the impact of gateway. Does anybody know or have any data about the user base and how many people have registered to use the service?
Thanks!
I think you’re probably on the right track where you’re looking on Twitter.
@Paul FYI although not formally confirmed seen a figure of 11m mentioned from two fairly credible sources, so gone with that.
@Paul: Employers have to use it to register for PAYE, unless they use a payroll bureau. Charities have to use it to reclaim Gift Aid.
As referenced above, anybody claiming their state retirement pension has to use it for internet access, or else use a call centre – there is no snail-mail option.
Here’s a good one:
1)waste one and a half days trying to login to HMRC gateway to submit my 2013-2014 self assesment tax return. ID or password wrong. get another. and another. and another. Oh, and wait hours and hours for the gateway to clear after the 2 hour lockout. Needless to say none worked. (I was using Google Chrome with Windows XP SP3)
2)Reset Chrome pop-up blocker, disable adblocker, dissable anti-virus. Repeat steps above.
3) Discover this site, and read Bill Waddle’s submission May 20, 2014 at 6:40 pm. Rummage through this machine and discover Internet Explorer 8. BINGO! ID and password accepted!
4) First page. Do you want email reminders? YES! (enter gmail address). “We have sent a confirmation message to your address please click on the link to continue.”
5) Open new tab IE8, login to gmail. Message from gmail “you are using out of date browser we no longer support.”
6) Go to Chrome, open gmail, click on link.
7) Back to IE8, Click Continue, WE’RE IN!
8) POUR LARGE BRANDY.
Many thanks to all at this site!
Rather like calling the Samaritans, I think! Probably saved me from throwing myself under a bus. Its reassuring to learn that I am far from alone in being fouled up by this ludicrous system. Its just taken me 3 hours to use the “Quick on-line facility using a GGW id” to apply for my wife’s 70yr driving licence! I could have filled in AND posted the form, having also printed out a photo, in about a quarter of an hour!!
Never mind, GGW is being phased out in favour of something called Gov.UK Verify. God help us if the same bunch of chimpanzees that devised the GGW are also responsible for its follow up!!
Mind blowing incompetance by illiterate public servants doesn’t get close. AND WE PAY FOR THIS.
No – different, definitely literate, chimpanzees developing the new service. p.s. it’s “incompetence”
Well, at least I got illiterate right!
Hilarious! I have had a nervous breakdown, for this very reason, as I was late filing my SA, I never received a warning, and they have decided to bill me anyway…What a degenerated, annoying and incompetent system. I agree with the first comment, it is a plot to make sure we are late or hinder us from getting anywhere..Is this paranoia? Perhaps so! But this is the second time, I am unable to get online to file my tax.
@Tina: Naughty – leaving it to the last minute!
It’s not incompetence.
There’s no incompetence when it comes to taking your money online.
It’s contempt for idiot tax slaves like you & I.
You want information from Big Brother? Fuck you. We will spy on you whenever we want to. We’ll record ALL your emails & phone calls because “If you haven’t got anything to hide, then you haven’t got anything to worry about”
But you have no right to demand anything from us because WE FUCKING RULE YOU SLAVES.
Just keep paying your taxes. ALL of them. As many as we can think up to steal from you.
And if you don’t pay, then we’ll steal your property & take your liberty.
It’s called EXTORTION usually, but not when government does it.
As long as you keep taking it, we’ll keep doing it.
Now shut up as we sell your country & UNBORN CHILDREN into DEBT SLAVERY to the BANKSTERS because that’s who we really work for, NOT YOU SUCKERS…
In database parlance, allowing multiple User Id’s to be associated with a single email address is flawed for individuals accounts. You may attach different services to different User id’s and get in a complete pickle. This is because you can only attach a service to one User id. If you re-register with the same Email address, the site should stop the process.site I’m surprised no one’s DOS’ed the registration site with multiple registration requests. Imagine if Amazon had a system like this and told you you couldn’t buy DVDs because that section was registered against another User Id on the same email address. They’d be out of business pretty quickly I think. Individual registration could be done simply with a primary entity such as the person’s Unique Tax Reference Number or National Insurance Number (there’s scope for de-duplication there too). As a final point, this is the statement on the Website “The Government Gateway is the website you use to register for online government services. It is an important part of the government’s strategy of delivering ‘joined up’ government, enabling people to communicate and make transactions with government from a single point of entry.” Single point of entry – only if you know NOT to re-register again EVER!
Thanks for this blog Paul as I thought I was going mad. As a sad trained techie who is approaching pension age, I wanted to find out how much my U.K pension will be. I am only due about 5 years worth as I left the UK many moons ago. So am expecting about 7 quid a week. Well, at least that’s a bottle of half decent red wine a week on the dear college boys who run my homeland. Anyway, enrolled and was surprised to find the Gateway recognized me and my overseas address. This was probably down to fact that I returned to the UK once seeking employment and registered at a job center. Being thus impressed, I received by snail mail confirmation of my 12 digit I.D. and a week later my highly secret activation code. But like some who have commented here got the dreaded wrong password message. I used a Chrome browser to log in, so tried it with Firefox, but still no joy. I think I then tried Internet Explorer, but can not be sure as I have been to bed since then. What I do remember is that all attempts to log in failed so I re-enrolled when my details had expired. This time I set a real easy password (following their password rules) and today got a new 12 digit I.D. and a new activation code in two separate letters and only a few days after re-enrolling. I was thinking efficiency has improved and there must be a general election looming. But you’ve guessed it. Log in failed. Have exceeded the 3 goes and your out so later on will try logging again using Explorer as someone here recommends. But I am of the opinion that the government is hoping that I pass away before I reach 65 to deprive me of my weekly wine treat. Maybe I’ll post back here and let you know how I get on if I should live so long already.
Update on above post. My story is sad. I could not use Internet Explorer 8 as my system will not support it. I deleted I.E 11 from my directory, this took some hours, but could only downgrade to I.E. 10. Tried to log in to Gateway using this but failed. By this time my wife had walked out taking the cat with her and my supplies of chicken soup that I keep for such emergencies. I pressed on and downloaded a new super duper version of I.E 11 from Microsoft complete with lovely new security updates. Tried to log in again to Gateway and failed. Then re-installed the dreaded Java Script, disabled all cookie blockers and tried the third time, it failed and I was locked out. By this time my wife, Ester, had returned but minus cat and soup tins. She then found a U.K. Gov site that had a pension calculator on it. Entered details and found my pension will be £27.32p all in 5 minutes. I now have to go and find the cat using my latest Sat Nav cat finder. I may be gone some time.
Seriously though, the Gateway log in system is a total shambles. All those involved would not last 5 minutes in the private sector. It pains me to think how much money has been wasted on this system by incompetent public service workers being ripped off by incompetent programmers who can only exist by feeding off others incompetence.
Hello all, glad I found this rare site commenting on GG, at least I know its not just me. Appreciate this is not a forum for problems but if anyone can help or tell me if I am being completely thick or not it would be appreciated (although having spent 20 years using computer systems in the private sector – I don’t think its me that the problem) Ok so I have my GG account set up with user ID along with UTR and James Bond type Activation Code just arrived in the post. However when I follow the instructions and log on to GG to ‘Activate’ my service (self assessment) there is absolutely no link to be found for ‘Action’ or ‘Activate Service’ All it is letting me do is go through the self assessment enrolment process again and part way through obviously stops me as it says I am already registered. So please do tell…where is the Action / Activate link / tab??? I have emailed the help-desk and am holding my breath in hope of a quick reply..(now on day two holding breath)
Many thanks in advance!
Paul
Hi, just spent a frustrating 30 mins trying to use my I.D and password on the State Pension Statement log in. I attempted to use my known and proven details that I use on the HMRC site but were told that they were wrong.
Trying to avoid the “three strikes and you’re out” situation I browsed the comments on this site. I then noticed that my password wouldn’t register using lower case. On re-submitting the password in upper case it worked.
I noticed further requests for details needed to be entered in upper case also.
There I was happy as Larry with my “Eureka” moment only to get to the last page which informed me that I had a mis match of details and needed to phone the Helpdesk. They couldn’t help but gave me another number, they couldn’t help either and I was given another number to phone, which I did. After all this runaround I got to speak to someone that knew what he was talking about, unfortunately he was a Toyota Dealer in Sheffield! He gets @ 20 calls a day regarding the GG, some problem with BT apparently.
In the meantime I’ve decided to work until I die as claiming my pension is much too exhausting for me.
Loved that last reply. All those people in government offices doing absolutely nothing of any worth at all and taking your money for doing it. Then the only guy who could help was someone receiving misdirected phone calls! I hope the next government continues with cuts and the stupid people get real jobs somewhere.
Anyway my own update is I gave up. 1 to civil servants and the useless programmers they gave a billion pound contract to and 0 to me. Yesterday, I received from the pension people where I now live a form to complete for my pension rights here, plus another form about my UK pension to complete and they will send it off to the UK on my behalf. A free Skype call to a friend here who is 65+ confirms the same happened to him and he now receives his local pension and his UK pension every month. Result? 1 -2 to me away from home.
I spent the whole afternoon trying to get onto the online self assessment but I still have no idea how I might be able to do that. I can get onto the Government Gateway but then when I try to enrol for self assessment and I give various details such as NI number I am told that I cannot enrol because I have done so already. They suggest ringing them and I have already spent half an hour waiting for them to answer when I did that.
I have wasted so many days and hours trying to log on to my GG account without success.
I cannot fin my original log in details.
I am trying to place a vacancy with the Universal Job Site.
When I try to re-register and give my email addresses of which I have 2 it states that the email addresses are not authentic.
and this is always after I have wasted time filling in a form.
Can any one help me or give me a contact number
Gettin desperate now
Thanks
Hi folks,
I’m afraid you have found the reality of Government Websites.
Most of them don’t work well. I know of systems that cant process payment print runs during the day because the system would crash!
As a friend of mine once said, the place is full of broken arrows. Absolutely bloody useless and still cant be fired! This was in reference to the management teams within government departments. Since they have all been promoted to their true level of incompetence, it is hardly surprising that they produce, or accept, systems that are as flawed as they are! I know of one manager who was just going to sign off on a project, and accept it into the business, because the deadline had come and he didn’t want to tell his boss that it wasn’t ready!
Those are some of the reasons why the systems will always be a serious hash up and a piece of expensive door jam!
having fought with this system for 4 months, and sent them screen shots, the answer I got back was just click on that button that says Government Gateway in the center of the screen and merge your email accounts on the system. What you mean the one that I showed you only asked for a new email address? and then told me that it was already in use on the system and couldn’t be used? Yes, that one!
Don’t bother contacting them either. You can email them from their system. Their response was that if it didn’t work, they could delete the account!
Nice one guys! Goes along with the ‘just wait for year and the system will delete your email account as long as its never used’ that I got from the wonderful Microsoft Helpdesk when I told them I needed an account removed from a website I had with them that got screwed up.I left them the following day!
Systems designed and implemented by ‘my mate next door’ can do that people who couldn’t spot dog at the interview stages, because they only employ people exactly the same as themselves.
As someone who has worked in IT since before there was a computer on your desk, it is seriously worrying what we are getting landed with these days.
I wish you all well. But praying might be a good option, I don’t see it changing any other way 🙂
Cheers
I can’t decide which of us is the more stupid – me for reaching 70 or the incompetent Civil Servants. I have just tried to renew my Driving Licence at 70 and thought to use the GC. I forgot both the number and my password and scrolled down to the ‘Help” Section. I was asked to put in a ‘Memorable Date’. I didn’t have one so I clicked ‘Help’ and was told “Put in a memorable date.” I scrolled down to Memorable name. I tried a few and failed so clicked on “Help” and was asked “Put in a memorable name.” Need I tell you what happened when I scrolled down to Memorable Town ….. other than to say it was worth a good laugh but unfortunately at tax payers’ expense.
After my previous posted comments on the fiasco that lies behind government administration, I never did proceed further than trying to enter a gateway password – after registering twice! The second time I chose a real easy password and was extra careful to enter my ever so secret password they sent me.
As an expat, the authorities here wrote to to the UK pension bods asking them to confirm the amount of my UK pension and to set up a payment plan. That was 14 weeks ago and I have yet to hear about their reply.
As a former technician, I live in hope that technology will finally see the majority of useless civil servants out. Technical data handling etc will, in my opinion, get so easy, that stupid people and the equally stupid people who set up the systems, will be seen for what for they are. Then we can get back to where decent salaries and private pensions belong to the private sector and we have good government administrators managing things. The sacked civil servants can get jobs building sonic processors and the like. A pipe dream? Maybe.
Just had awful experience in trying to sign up for PAYE for employers through the Government Gateway, what a terrible website, and even the HMRC help pages are unhelpfull, to me at least.
Their system is badly designed and illogical. I wasted so much time signing up for PAYE only to find out that you have to go on a different website from the GG in order to enrol for this service, which is completely stupid, they then send you an activativation code, which never showed up, meaning this whole process has dragged on and on.
Had to wait 40-50 minutes to get through to HMRC and only after making the third call did the person understand what the problem was, and sort it out, unfortunately she had a patronising attitude throughout the call and then at the end said “See, how easy was that!”
Could have strangled her.
The GG has directed me to the Motoring website but it just won’t recognise me at all…
I need to change the details on my licence.
I have entered my full name, last 2 addresses, and even Driver Licence Number, but alas I’m advised I must have something wrong… and that I should please call the ‘helpdesk’… which is a pre-recorded message directing me to the website!!
I just signed up for a gateway ID because I need to register to the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). I entered my name, email and password and then I briefly saw my Gateway ID before being redirected to the login page.
I never even got the chance to see it, never mind write it down. They haven’t even sent me an email with my ID, just a confirmation email.
Now I can’t even login in and the “lost my user ID” link takes me to a page asking me all kinds of questions, like what services did I sign up for? I never even got the chance to sign up for any services.
Am I missing something or am I locked out out before even getting in?
Thanks for any response
Colin
Inadequate website.Well this government are inadequate and not fit for purpose..like for like.Enough said.
I recently set up a Government Gateway account for a small online business, (which isn’t actually making me any money yet!). Since then, I have needed to register with Universal Jobsearch, but when I use my current user ID and password, it will only allow me to use the Jobsearch facility as an “employer”, even though I set it up the business as a sole trader. Are you allowed to set up two Gov Gateway accounts, and if so, do I need to use another email address ?
Hope someone can help !
Thanks.
I’m afraid I don’t know. This post is more an attempt to explain how the Gateway does (and doesn’t) work. Because each service that uses it has the ability to make difference choices about how it’s used and presented, some knowledge of the specific service is required in order to give any support on it, and I don’t know anything about this one. I’m sorry that the Gateway has such lousy customer support, but as I’ve said in the post, this is something of an inevitable consequence of the way in which it was created. They really know nothing about their customers, by design.
From what I can see, Gateway users fall into two categories, Individuals (the vast majority) and everything else. Individual users should be able to manage their tax returns, pensions, driving licenses etc online.
Unfortunately the system does not check if individuals are already registered, so it is possible to have more than one account which typically happens when an individual looses their logon credentials and inadvertently re-apply.
The architects of the system need to deal with this by using a National Insurance Number or tax reference number of an individual as the unique user ID for each individuals account. (I have two such accounts, one for my PAYE and one for my Government Pension.) I cannot de-duplicate these accounts and the system will not allow me to assign my Pension to my account for PAYE )
All other accounts (such as those used by businesses, accountants etc) need a different account and it if memory serves, you may be able to re-use your email, although I would advise setting up a separate business email (e.g. on gmail or yahoo) to keep your personal individual notifications from HMRC separate from your business notifications.
I hope this is helpful
Well what a surprise – it’s not just me that’s having problems claiming my state pension through the government gateway. After thinking I’d completed the online application giving all information requested and getting the ‘green light’ message ‘Your claims been submitted’ I then received a letter giving me a second activation code (having already had one sent for “State Pension online activation code”)for “Memorable Information Activation Code” but no information as to how or where I should use this before its expiry in 28 days. I therefore rang DWP and after explaining why I was calling was asked to validate certain information as not everything I had entered on the online application had been updated to their system, and furthermore I was advised that they could not tell me how to use the most recently received activation code as they did not use the system themselves. We then spent at least 10 minutes re-affirming everything I had already entered on the DWP online system only a few days earlier and had confirmation that all necessary data had been entered. I had naively assumed that having registered with the government gateway some years ago and used the HMRC system for many years for SA tax returns that there would be commonality of shared databases between government departments, but I was told that although HMRC can see all DWP data it does not work the other way around.
Why was I not surprised?
Another year and things seem just to get worse. I spent an hour and a half trying to get to my self assessment form last night.
Turning down an option to set up a Gov-uk id (“It will only take 10 minutes and you can use it to log onto the Gateway”… Why, for God’s sake?) I logged on to Gov Gateway using my old Id and password… Sorry but you need to add a second level of security using a mobile phone text. Foolishly I didn’t deny having a phone and entered my number. Amazingly a PIN arrived by text. I entered it and was greeted by a welcome back page with correct personal details and a record of my last login. This is better, I thought and selected self assessment which took me to new page with links to 2015/16 expected income, expected tax, including potentially useful breakdowns… Except that the figures they kindly broke down were complete nonsense!! The only link that was missing was one to the 2014/15 tax return!
Persevering, I tried a “View your self assessment” link. This provided me with an option to “Claim for deferral of payment on account” which rather seemed to imply I had already completed my tax return!
After another 45 minutes of fruitless ferreting around, including the odd excursion out to totally irrelevant help pages, I found myself back at the HMRC gov Gateway log in screen having never logged out! At this point I wanted to die but instead sent off a rather huffy feedback to the ‘beta’ baboon team.
Calming down a little, I logged back in, received a new PIN text, entered it, arrived at the same self 2015/16 tax summary page with all incorrect data still there. With heavy heart I pressed “View your self assessment….” and duly arrived back at the Claim to defer payment on account BUT, Joy upon Joy, another link appeared which took me to the old familiar on-line tax return input form.
I suspect that if only somebody had suggested logging out and in again after setting up the new PIN text security thing, I would have added an hour to my day and avoided breaking a new blood pressure record! These clowns probably don’t even understand what happened.
Hey ho, at least it’s not the 31st or it would have cost me £100 as well!
I’m glad you got some sort of useful service even after all that. I’m curious about what put you off getting a Gov UK ID? It should prove to be more generally useful to you for other services. And it doesn’t involve giving any information to the government directly – it relies entirely on approved third parties checking you out and issuing you with log-in details. What put you off? Could be useful insight.
I was pushed for time, Paul and didn’t see the point of adding a further 10 (read 20!) minutes to the process!!!
If only I knew what was to come….
This is really the only site that explains what the Gateway is about. I’m here because I’m finally getting round to learning to drive. I apply for a provisional. It asks for the ID, so being a programmer I’ve got it saved somewhere. I try to use it, fails. So I apply online only to be told they need some information (which that don’t specify) and it looks like I’m gonna have to fill in a paper form. What a waste of time.
I just tried to provide DVLA with my existing Government Gateway ID – it let me log in. Then I had to go through their registration process and when I get to retrieving my licence record it cannot find my licence based on my driver number and address. It took me 20 minutes to find a working support contact form.
The next day they replied and told me that the problem was I couldn’t use my existing government gateway ID and would have to create a new one. I am still waiting for a response as to how that ties in to the actual error I received.
I have entered my Government Gateway ID as per my HMRC account, but DVLA will not accept password. They reckon the HMRC ID is a business ID, but my tax return is a PERSONAL one!
So after losing 45 minutes of my day I will fill in paper copy.
I’m trying to claim my pension. I’d previously (2011) got myself registered with the Gateway, and subsequently received the ‘Activation Code’ through the post, and used it. Now when I try to do the claim process, having successfully logged on with my User ID and Password, and then entering some other information (NI number, DOB etc) I’m informed I’ll be sent ANOTHER activation code, through the post, to allow me to proceed with the claim. WTF…?
HMRC says to enter my Government Gateway ID and password, but doesn’t accept them. (even though they work just fine on gateway.gov.uk, and it even shows me as enrolled for Self assessment).
The “best” thing was after I requested help they sent a form letter back which stated “if this email didnt help please reply below”.
You know how long they gave me to do that reply before they closed the ticket? 3 minutes.
3 minutes I had from receiving the email to them preventing me from replying.
the site is a joke, password reset impossible because I can’t remember the secret questions.
Hi
This service in poorly architected. The people that designed this system have no idea what a unique account is, what decent UX means and how to create online services. The government needs to scrap this current mess. Every person in support also has a different answer as to why my previous years accounts are in a different account that cannot be accessed. Unfortunately post is the only answer until the government completely restructures the current account hierarchy and uses unique identifiers.
Absolutely horrible experience. If private enterprise had launched this type of a service for a customer, there would be serious repercussions.
Spir os
This site is a joke. I couldn’t register for a SA on it so called online services. She took me to another website I hadn’t even heard of – no link at all to Gov Gateway and said to use this website as the other one (for the public) is too complicated. 3 days wasted trying to register for a SA.
A total joke! To tell you your user name/number they need your password, and to reset your password they need your user name/number. I don’t even remember now which email address I used to register 10 years ago. A commercial organization would have lost most of their customers by now.
Hi there.. I registered on gateway last month for the first time as a self employed, to receive a letter with activation code as organisation ?!?I am confused, can I still fill my tax return on that account , just a bit worried as I am running out of time for online self assessment. Thx
This Gateway thing is a farce. I’m trying to claim my pension. They sent me an activation code but I cannot find where to use that, instead I’m asked for my Gateway ID and password. I think I had one 5 or more years ago but there’s no way of getting that re-sent. If I re-register as you suggest here it says I already have registered and what’s my user ID?
So it’s off to print and fill in the paper form which helpfully doesn’t tell me where to send it, so now I need to phone them to get them to send me an envelope for the paper form.
Just wasted hours over 2 days.
Oh! and they wrote to me initially telling me to claim my pension so they obviously already have most of my details.
absolutely appaled by this system. Got a user ID and password and have gine through getting an activation code via my phone, but no that not enough! (seems perfectly ok for my bank with 250K of my mone). No when you have to GIVE them money they make it nigh in impossible to F~ing tell them how much. The fine you if you dont. After inputting ID / Password / activation code (all correct) they wanted me to answer 6 – yes 6 questions from my credit file. Most of it I dont remember – so back to square one but your locked out for 24 hours. Absolutely terrible, why they need this amount of information is just beyond me!
In Sept 2016 I got an email to get a new ID for Governement Gateway, did this, then in December 16 when I tried to access the site was informed that my User ID/Password were not recognised. After spending days and hours trying to speak to someone was informed that the new ID I had setup in September was not connected to my Account and that the old ID I had set up 10 years ago was the proper one. Neither the person I was speaking to nor could get on using either ID’s. I am left now with not been able to access the sites with anything. I do not know what to do.
This site looks and feels like a 1990s website. Let’s face it, anything run by the government is bad news. Remember their slogan ‘digital by default’, should be ‘dodgy by default’
If they give you questions from your credit file and you don’t know the answers what are you supposed to do? Apart from chase your own tail! Nobody seems to be able to tell you what to do when you phone up. Five days in and I’m no nearer getting it right, in fact I’m guessing just like a fraudster would. All I want to do is my self assessment and time is running out. Anyone know the solution?
Just gave up trying to register (You’re already registered-go to log in. Log in says to register. Bah! Back to the postman. More life wasted.
Really accurate report, tried to activate my state pension on line, on the basis of my experience it is probably a government attempt to get us new 65 year olds to pass away before we can claim through this system. Having worked in I.T. for most of my life this system made me doubt my abilities, not to mention my sanity. Can’t we get Nigel Farage to start a political party to sort this out
Not all that sure the views of a tired old racist who can’t win an election will do much sorting out tbh
I cant believe what the GG is putting me through – my taxes are a mess because of it. No one cares. I will be fined for not being able to use a rubbish system.
Ive received an email from Inland rev stating that they owe me £200. Last year they told me this would be automatically sent in the post if i didn;t register. I tried, gave up, and nothing arrived in the post. When i try to register there isn;t an option for tax rebate…so i don;t get past beginning. Anyone any ideas?
[…] half revealed online. There is also a separate user ID. All a bit cumbersome. Citizen blogger Paul Clarke neatly sums it up as being, “not quite a seamless electronic transaction”. Nowadays anything […]
registration for HMRC went ok until credit ref agency check
failed to id me, please anyone what can I do because
no interactive contact possible from helpdesk.
registration ok until credit ref agency check ID failed please anyone what can I do because no interactive help from helpdesk.
Good blog. I was suprised to find the GG seems to need a re-register basically every time I use it! Basically almost useless…
Can anyone tell me why my Gateway number has been changed? When I got the number originally it came on a plastic card – I’ve still got it. When I tried to renew my Driving Licence, through DVLA, I kept being refused by the website and had to get another number – for which I don’t have aGov’t Gateway card! What’s going on???
Hello
Personal tax account, after login, they send an access code to my old phone number…
How to change my phone number now?. No idea.
Excellent.
Any advice, please. Thank you.
Tried to register. Got a long way in and it asked me for my UK address . I don’t live in the UK anymore. The site knew this already as it asked what country my phone was registered in. Can’t get past the UK address though. Is this site not available if you live outside the UK
I have similar experiences to those above – activation code but no obvious place to use it etc. It really is appalling, but what interests me most is that the only way that I could find this really useful summary of how awful it all is, and evidence that it’s not just me – was to add the word ‘crap’ to my google search – it’s very curious that this is the only way to find critical accounts of a very poor service. Why? and how have they achieved this?
I started using the service 4 years ago when I needed to exchange my spanish driving licence for the british one I believe.
Since then I have had 4 or 5 different accounts I think. I was still wondering what happened with my previous accounts I registered and I couldn’t log in anymore till I have read this articlee. Some of them I lost the password or user ID, but others I wasn’t able to log in after I changed the password for a more easy to remember one. I wonder if the system gets “crazy” or blocked if you type several passwords when trying to get to the good one because no way I didn’t type the correct one at least once. So I had to ask for a new ID to come by the post after I couldn’t pass the security questions. Obviously I haven’t changed it to a more easy to remember one due to I am frightened of doing it.
Every time I log in to HMRC to manage my Limited Company tax etc they ask me to get an alternative way to get codes just in case I don’t have my cell phone available, and the 3 options need me to have my phone!! Option 1. HMRC App, option 2. Text message and option 3. Voice call!!
REALLY??
Thanks for the post.
read what he said https://ikcc.jp/