DWP 'Fails To Stop Billions Being Lost Through Housing Benefit'

A group of MPs has launched a scathing attack on the DWP branding its spend on preventing housing benefit fraud and error ‘completely nonsensical’. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) ordered the department to report back within six months ‘with a clear plan to tackle the major sources of loss on housing benefit’. Margaret Hodge, chair of the PAC, said: ‘Billions of pounds have been lost to the taxpayer as a result of the DWP’s failure to tackle housing benefit fraud and error effectively.” Download the report from the Parliament website.

Treasury Has Not Signed Off On Duncan Smith's Universal Credit

The Treasury has still not signed off on the government's troubled universal credit benefits reform, Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has revealed. He made the admission that the project was being drip-fed money by the Treasury after Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, repeatedly pressed senior civil servants about its financial status. It the latest sign that the Treasury is keeping a very close eye on universal credit, the responsibility of work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, after it was criticised by the National Audit Office for its "weak management, ineffective control and poor governance". Read more on the Guardian website.

DWP on Verge of Meltdown over Big Welfare Projects

Department for Work and Pensions is facing "meltdown" over three of its biggest projects, Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public spending watchdog, has said. Ahead of a damning report on government contracts with private firms, Hodge singled out the DWP as a department particularly struggling with the delivery of welfare changes, which involve managing a relationship with private IT contractors, back-to-work providers and benefit assessors. The public accounts committee report turns up the pressure on ministers to allow all government contracts to be subject to freedom of information (FOI) laws and examined by the National Audit Office (NAO). Read more on the Guardian website.

Committee Considers Impact of Welfare Reforms

The Public Accounts Committee - chaired by Margaret Hodge MBE MP - has released a report examining the overall impact of housing benefit reforms implemented by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The paper is broadly critical of the Department's approach. Margaret Hodge said:

"At the time of our hearing, far too many of those who stand to be directly affected were worryingly unaware of the reforms and what they will mean for their finances."  According to the Committee's findings, significant changes are being introduced without comprehensively modelling likely outcomes on individuals or on housing supply. It suggests that there seems to be little understanding of costs which may be incurred by local authorities.  Read the report on the Parliament website.

Committee Attacks Housing Benefit Reforms

The Public Accounts Committee has concluded that the government's housing benefit reforms have not been properly thought through.  Must damning of all, the Committee found that there is a risk that the introduction of direct payments of housing benefit to tenants living in social housing could lead to an increase in rent arrears and evictions. The report reads: "Housing associations are increasing their bad debt provision and concerns are being expressed that homelessness could increase."  The Committee's chair, Margaret Hodge MP, said that the DWP cannot "accurately predict the effects of its housing benefit changes either on individuals or on the housing supply". Download a copy of the report from the Parliament website.