Universal Credit Costs Leap by More Than 20% to £15.8bn

The total lifetime cost of the Universal Credit welfare reform programme has increased by nearly £3bn in the past three years to £15.8bn, according to figures from the government’s Major Projects Authority (MPA). The last time the DWP calculated an official cost estimate for the whole project, in 2012, it was £12.85bn. But the latest annual report from the MPA shows that, as of September 2014 when the report was compiled, the cost is now expected to be more than 20% higher. Since the 2012 estimate, DWP has been forced to tear up its original plans for the troubled programme, writing off millions of pounds in scrapped IT development and revising the timetable for roll-out. That process, labelled as a “reset” in 2014’s MPA report, allowed the revised lifetime costs to remain under wraps until now. Read more on the Computer Weekly website.

Universal Credit: Treasury Still to Sign off Business Case

Questions over the fate of the government’s flagship welfare reform programme will continue until after the election as it was revealed that the Treasury has still not signed off the business case for universal credit and will not decide whether to do so until summer next year. A final decision might not come until 2016. The Treasury said it would not be able to firm up the numbers until at least the summer of 2015. It was also revealed that the Major Projects Authority still has UC graded as “amber-red”, and is therefore a source of serious concern for the body responsible for overseeing the government’s major capital programme. Read more on the Guardian website.

Universal Credit – Parliamentary Written Answer

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 7 July 2014, by the Cabinet Secretary to Question 32 in oral evidence taken in the Committee of Public Accounts, when the Major Projects Authority informed him that the universal credit project was way off track. 

Mr Harper: The reset rating highlighted in the Major Projects Authority Report (September 2013) referred to the shift in the delivery plan and change in management in early 2013. Since the reset, we have worked to a clear plan to deliver universal credit. We are on track with this plan and we are making good progress. In June 2014, the CEO of the Major Projects Authority reported to Public Accounts Committee that the universal credit programme was stable and on track.

Spending Watchdog Accuses DWP of Hiding Universal Credit's Failings

Parliament's public spending watchdog has accused ministers in the DWP of hiding the failings of the coalition's troubled universal credit scheme. The public accounts committee said the decision to devise a new category of "resetting" projects could have been a way of preventing scrutiny and obscuring problems. The assessment comes in a report by MPs on the Major Projects Authority, the government watchdog responsible for assessing the scheme's implementation. According to the report, the DWP, in consultation with the MPA, published their delivery confidence assessment of the universal credit project as "reset" in September 2013. It was a new term that appeared to have been devised specifically for the new programme, committee members said. "The 'reset' category was introduced for the 2013-14 report and was only applied to this one project. The MPA confirmed that the decision to give universal credit a reset rating was ultimately made by ministers," the report said. Read more on the Guardian website.

Iain Duncan Smith’s Delusional World of Welfare Reform

Politicians may deal in terminological inexactitudes, but I can’t think of many black-is-white, war-is-peace practitioners as downright deceptive as Iain Duncan Smith. Originally, the question was whether to put it down to simple stupidity, as he didn’t understand that the numbers he promised were impossible. Yesterday, poring over his big speech on welfare reform, a few of the more polite experts spoke of his “magical thinking”. But his motives and state of mind hardly matter to the millions affected by his evidence-free, faith-based policy-making. His speech was a paean of self-praise. To read it, no minister has done such good for so many. This was a sublime response to a battery of critics who include Treasury briefers, the National Audit Office on the failure of his work programme, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority for his abuse of figures, and the Major Projects Authority awarding his universal credit an amber/red warning. Read more on the Guardian website.

Freud: IDS Took Decision To 'Reset' Universal Credit

Lord Freud has reassured peers that the decision to 'reset' universal credit does not put the flagship policy in jeopardy. The Major Projects Authority revealed last month that the government's multi-billion pound reform of the benefits system had been 'reset' but there has been a lack of clarity about what the term means - until now. Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord Freud said the decision to "reorganise" universal credit had been taken by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith who had preferred to take a step back rather than "blundering on regardless". Read more on 24dash.

Delays to Universal Credit Lead Watchdog To Rate It as A New Project

Due to the delays to universal credit, a government watchdog has assessed it as ‘reset’ meaning it is considered a new scheme. The Major Projects Authority’s annual assessment up to September 2013 of 200 government infrastructure projects rated Iain Duncan Smith’s flagship welfare reform scheme as ‘reset’. This is the first time the MPA has used this classification for its delivery confidence assessment. The report said the MPA has ‘undertaken significant work to develop a ‘reset plan’ to place the roll-out of universal credit on a more secure footing’. It added that the ‘reset’ decision ‘reflects this new status of the project’. Read more on Inside Housing.

IDS Accused of Misleading MPs over Cost of IT Failures

Iain Duncan Smith has been accused of misleading parliament after it emerged that the DWP could write off up to £161m spent on an IT system for ambitious welfare changes – more than four times what the minister said would be wasted.  The welfare minister also faces further embarrassing disclosures from PwC accountants who found that the universal credit system, which will allow the government to roll six welfare payments into one, has had little ministerial oversight. In one instance, a civil servant's personal assistant was allowed to sign off contracts, they found. The disclosures emerged at a public accounts committee meeting when officials from the department were closely questioned by MPs. Norma Wood, the head of the Major Projects Authority, agreed that the system would have to write off at least £140m. Read more on the Guardian website.