MPs criticise ‘little progress’ on Universal Credit implementation

25 Feb 15
There has been very little frontline progress on the delivery of the government’s Universal Credit benefit reform, despite £700m having been spent on it, the Public Accounts Committee said today.

By Vivienne Russell | 25 February 2015

There has been very little frontline progress on the delivery of the government’s Universal Credit benefit reform, despite £700m having been spent on it, the Public Accounts Committee said today.

In a progress report on the flagship scheme to merge six benefits into one payment, the MPs noted that only 18,000 people were claiming the new benefit as of October last year – out of around 7 million who are expected to receive it in the longer term.

‘As the Department [for Work and Pensions] has justified this spending on the promise of benefits in the future – such as from higher employment – rather than on the actual delivery of benefits to date, we simply cannot judge the value for money of this expenditure at this stage,’ said PAC chair Margaret Hodge.

‘The IT infrastructure continues to be of particular concern. The department has spent £344m with suppliers developing its “live” service systems for claimants who have straightforward initial claims which do not involve all six benefits, yet it expects to re-use just £34m worth of this IT in the longer term.’

She criticised the decision to run two separate IT systems as ‘complicated and expensive’ and noted that despite the programme ‘reset’ in 2013, the DWP had already fallen a further six months behind schedule in developing digital services.

Hodge added: ‘We were disappointed that the department chose to fight to protracted legal battle to prevent the publication of its programme milestones schedules against which it could be held to account publicly, although it appears to have become more open and improved its governance of the programme recently.

‘The department should set out publicly its current milestone for what it expects to achieve at different points in the programme, and clearly explain any future changes to the scope, cost and timings of the these.’

But the DWP said the committee’s findings were out of date and considerable progress had been made since the MPs took evidence in December.

A spokeswoman said: 'Universal Credit is on track and we are making good progress – almost 64,000 people have made a claim and this time next year UC will be in every jobcentre in the country.

‘Latest evidence shows it’s already transforming lives with UC claimants moving into work faster and earning more.Using existing IT ensures value for money and will save the taxpayer over £2bn.’

The DWP announced earlier this month that Universal Credit was now being rolled out across the UK. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith described it as a ‘landmark’ event in the government’s economic programme.

Spacer

CIPFA logo

PF Jobsite logo

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top