Digital Universal Credit System Is Plagued By Errors

The rollout of the full digital service for universal credit has been plagued by errors, delays and computer crashes, leaving vulnerable families in debt and at risk of eviction, an MP has said. Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington, home to one of a handful of locations to pioneer the full UC system, has called for an overhaul of the service after receiving a regular flow of complaints from desperate constituents. “The rollout of the digital, full universal credit is failing working parents and vulnerable people and the government is far too slow at tackling its flaws,” Brake said. Brake’s comments, based on local cases investigated by his constituency office, follow a string of reports highlighting glitches and flaws in the design and day-to-day operation of UC. Read more on the Guardian website.

Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to his written statement of 5 December 2013, Official Report, columns 65-6WS, on universal credit, what budget he has allocated to the new digital service for universal credit. 

Esther McVey: Costs for the future development of the digital service remain subject to on-going commercial discussions.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on the existing universal credit pathfinder sites. 

Esther McVey: The most recent estimate of the cost of existing universal credit pathfinder sites is set out in the NAO report Universal Credit: Early progress, HC 621, published on 5 September 2013.

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the freezing of universal credit work allowances will save.

Esther McVey: Disregards in existing income based benefits are generally not uprated year on year. The £5 earnings disregard in Income Support has been at this level for at least 25 years. In universal credit, new work allowances will improve financial work incentives for many people. For example, in 2018-19, the work allowance for a single person over 25, without children, is projected to be £25.60 per week as compared to the current JSA disregard of £5 per week (2013-14 prices). The work allowance rates will be fixed for the first three years, to uprate them by 1% for those three years would lead to an additional cost in the region of £300 million in 2018-19 (2013-14 prices).

Ministers to Decide Whether To Scrap Universal Credit IT

DWP ministers are to decide whether to immediately scrap all of the £300m Universal Credit IT systems and start again from scratch. There are two options;

One option would mean scrapping all the work done so far, thereby admitting it is not fit for purpose, and bringing most of the development of new IT systems in-house under the control of the Government Digital Service (GDS).

Option two would involve continuing to use some of the existing IT to support the current Pathfinder pilot projects, but developing new systems for the full roll-out – effectively delaying any decision to throw away all the work completed so far.

Whichever option is chosen, sources suggest it is likely that all the existing IT work will eventually be scrapped. Read more on the Computer Weekly website.