DWP Blowing £1.3million Checking Benefit Cap By Hand Because Computers Are Not Ready

Ministers are blowing £1.3million on staff to carry out checks for its flagship benefits cap – because the computer system needed to do the job has yet to be built.  The Government has been forced to take on 112 workers to check what each household receives and if any are exempt from the cap.  Labour’s Stephen Timms said “We need urgent assurances that this latest IT disaster won’t plunge yet another scheme into chaos.” The blunder emerged in a Parliamentary answer from Tory minister Mark Hoban.  He said: “The check is to verify the benefits paid to a household and to check whether any exemptions should apply.  “This process will remain in place until an automated solution is developed and ­introduced.”  Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Universal Credit Staff Describe Chaos Behind Scenes

Staff working on the biggest shakeup of the welfare state in its history have described the project as "soul-destroying" and "unbelievably frustrating", with some saying they are under so much pressure that they can only engage in "firefighting and panic management".  A leaked internal survey of scores of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) employees working on the government's flagship Universal Credit programme describes an environment of poor management and high levels of stress. Interim results of the staff survey distributed back to staff last week were mainly negative. One civil servant writes of "a near complete absence of anything that looks like strategic leadership in the programme". Another says: "There is a divisive culture of secrecy around current programme developments and very little in the way of meaningful messages for staff or stakeholders explaining what will happen and when." Read more on the Guardian website.