The introduction of the Government’s universal credit
scheme has suffered from another embarrassing IT setback, after it emerged that
claimants in a region piloting the new system had vanished from official
statistics on unemployment. Following
disputes with auditors in recent months over computing problems that have cost
taxpayers tens of millions of pounds, civil servants in the DWP have realised
that the new system is incompatible with current methods of counting the number
of jobless people in the country.
Statisticians currently measure unemployment by recording how many
people are receiving jobseeker’s allowance – and counting universal credit
claimants within the numbers of those seeking work would inflate the figures,
because the recipients include people in employment who are receiving what was
previously income support or working tax credit. Read more on the Independent website.
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