£1m Admin Cost Estimate On First Year Of Pay To Stay

A London borough estimates that Pay to Stay could cost it £1 million in first year administration costs alone to make IT and other system and process changes happen.  The borough of Camden has put a £1 million price on the bureaucracy that Pay to Stay will generate.  Camden concedes to “little detailed information” about how many households are likely to be affected by Pay to Stay, but estimates indicate that as many as 13% of tenants may be affected - against the government’s national estimate of 7.4%. Read more on 24dash.

LGA Calls On Government To Rethink Pay To Stay Policy

The Local Government Association is urging ministers to rethink the Pay to Stay policy. It comes as new analysis reveals that more than 70,000 social housing tenants could face rent rises averaging £1,000 a year under the policy. The LGA is warning the policy would create a bureaucracy causing stress to families, further costs to councils, and financial returns to the Government far lower than it originally forecast. It is also warning administrative complexities now make implementation from April 2017 impossible. Councils need to invest millions in new IT systems, hire new staff and write to more than a million social housing tenants to try and understand household income and approve individual tenant bills by January.  Read more on the LGA website.

Universal Credit Staff Vote To Strike over 'Inadequate' IT Systems

Universal Credit employees have voted to go on a two-day strike over inadequate IT systems and what they describe as an “increasingly oppressive working environment”. Staff in DWP centres in Glasgow and Bolton voted by 84 percent to go on strike over the troubled project, which aims to merge six working-age benefits into one. The PCS union has about 1,500 members across the two sites, representing over 80 percent of all staff, according to a spokesman.  Staff at the contact centres are responsible for taking calls from claimants, answering online enquires and processing claims. Their demands include “proper investment in IT and training”, an end to the “excessive target culture” and a “fundamental rethink of the new ways of working”. Read more on the Computer World website.

Five Things to Offset the Impact of Universal Credit

Housing professionals are working proactively to counteract the changes brought about by universal credit before migration moves tenants onto the benefit. The CIH have identified five top tips based on these experiences.

1.       Speak to possible universal credit claimants at the right time

2.       Help tenants to build up savings or get rent accounts into credit

3.       Identify who will win and lose from a move onto universal credit

4.       Run a direct payment pilot or programme with your local council

5.       Upgrade IT systems to improve efficiency and knowledge

Read more on the CIH website.

Universal Credit at Risk of Collapse?

The flagship welfare reform has recently been described as “in meltdown” by its own staff.  In a survey by the PCS union, more than half of the staff admitted that they don’t think Universal Credit is an improvement for benefit claimants.Other key findings include:

·         90% of staff said they believe the multi million pound IT systems are less than adequate,

·         70% thought staffing levels were less than adequate,

·         Four in five said that the training given was less than adequate to prepare them for successfully working on the scheme,

·         Stress levels have increased amongst the majority of staff,

·         Two thirds said they were frequently asked to work overtime.

Read more on the Ready Rentals blog.

DWP Has Made 'Little Progress on Universal Credit'

Little progress has been made on the roll-out of universal credit with just 0.3% of the eligible population receiving it by October last year, concludes a damning new report. This is despite the £700m spent on the programme since it began in 2010, says the government’s spending watchdog the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Fewer than 18,000 people were claiming universal credit by October 2014, the committee report explains, out of about seven million expected in the longer term. The watchdog was also critical of the IT infrastructure for the programme, which it says is of ‘particular concern’. It has cost the DWP £344m so far to develop its ‘live’ service systems for claimants. Download the report from the Parliament website.

Universal Credit: Watchdog Warns of Cost of Further Delays

Ministers risk racking up a multi-billion pound bill if IT systems to run their flagship benefits reforms are not introduced on time, a watchdog claims. The National Audit Office says there are no contingency plans to deal with any delays in the digital service being created to deliver universal credit. The programme is already six months behind schedule, the NAO said. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has insisted it is being rolled out in a "careful and controlled" way. But, in a new report, the NAO warned that a further six-month delay could mean a £2.3bn loss in the societal benefits expected from moving people into work. Download a copy of the report from the NAO website.

Universal Credit Thrown Into Doubt by Government Findings

Iain Duncan Smith’s floundering Universal Credit system will have to deal with 1.6million changes to people’s claims every month, a Government adviser has revealed. The shocking figure throws fresh doubt over whether the Work Secretary’s flagship scheme will ever be fully up and running after being dogged by delays and glitches. Professor John Hills reveals the scale of the challenge in a new book that explodes the “strivers versus skivers” myth peddled by politicians. Professor Hills, of the London School of Economics, warns: “This will make the system hard to run.” Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Welfare Reform: Will Iain Duncan Smith's Benefits Revolution Happen?

The work and pensions secretary has restated his determination to transform Britain's welfare system. But universal credit, his flagship project to streamline benefits into a single payment, is proving a costly logistical nightmare. There is little political argument about the theory of universal credit. All parties agree that a system that simplifies the benefits system, builds in incentives by making work pay and, thereby, again in theory, saves the state money in the long run by changing cultural attitudes, must be good. But where there is argument – even within government – is over the rate of progress, the handling of its implementation by the DWP and Duncan Smith, the soaring costs and, ultimately, the feasibility. It is a vast, complex enterprise, presenting an IT challenge that experts say is nothing short of mind-boggling. Read more on the Observer website.

MPs: Universal Credit Inquiry 'Hampered By Ministers'

A Commons committee has accused the government of "hampering" its scrutiny of the Universal Credit welfare policy. The government had not always provided accurate and timely information on changes to the flagship benefit reform, the Work and Pensions Committee said. It also warned the single benefit was being rolled out at a "snail's pace". But the government said it had given "regular updates" to MPs and its plans were being implemented in a "slow, controlled and safe" fashion. In its latest report, the cross-party committee said there remained "worrying uncertainty" over the computer systems being developed to implement the reforms. Read more on the BBC website.

Flagship Benefits Scheme Faces More Delays

The government's flagship programme to shake up the benefits system is facing fresh problems in a battle between two departments at the heart of the scheme. Friction between the DWP and the Cabinet Office overseen by Francis Maude is now causing "high-level" risks to the delivery of the project, according to minutes of a Whitehall meeting. Maude's department, minutes of the government's universal credit board confirm, has also accelerated the pullout of its elite team of IT experts from the project after what sources describe as serious tensions over the progress of the £2.4bn overhaul. The DWP is now urgently searching for new IT specialists to keep the complex software project on track. As a result, future implementation of universal credit could now face delays and increased costs because of the pullout, senior civil servants have been told, according to the minutes. Read more on the Guardian website.

Commons Clash over Universal Credit

The government is prioritising the "safe and secure" delivery of Universal Credit, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has told MPs. The £2bn project to simplify the benefits system has been beset by problems and £40m of expenditure on IT systems has been written off. Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Mr Duncan Smith said it was a "major and challenging reform". Labour said the project had effectively been delayed by two years.  Mr Duncan Smith has insisted the flagship project is on track despite acknowledging that 700,000 people will not be moved onto the new system, as planned, by the end of 2017. Read more on the BBC website.

DWP Ministers to Decide Whether to Scrap All of the £300m Universal Credit IT

Ministers at the DWP are to decide this month whether to immediately scrap all of the £300m Universal Credit (UC) IT systems and start again from scratch. Computer Weekly has learned that a review by UC director general Howard Shiplee will recommend two options for the future of the IT developed so far, which go even further than previous reports have suggested. 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. Read more on the Computer Weekly website.

Universal Credit Failed IT System Write-Off Increased By £6m

The government has increased its initial write-off of a failed IT system for universal credit by £6m to £40.1m, but acknowledged that a further £90m of software is likely to be written down in its value over the next five years.  The precise loss to the taxpayer will depend on how much of the existing IT software is retained after it has been merged with a new IT system being developed by the Cabinet Office's Government Digital Service. Seeking to explain the £40m write-off, Mike Driver, finance director general at the DWP, said: "There is no use for the IT code built to run the computer systems. It has no future value. It is not going to generate any future return for the department." Read more on the Guardian website.

Universal Credit IT System Can't Yet Cope With Couples

The computer system used to run Universal Credit cannot cope with the “complicated” lives of thousands of benefits claimants, officials have admitted. Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was forced to deny that the Coalition’s flagship welfare reform is a “debacle” despite officials conceding that the IT system was unable to cope with couples and families. In a heated session in front of the Commons’ work and pensions select committee, he defended the scheme, saying: “There is no debacle on Universal Credit.” He said that much of the criticism about the project’s financial failings had been “bogus nonsense”. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.

Committee Publishes Report on the Early Progress of Universal Credit

The cross-party Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Margaret Hodge MP, has released a critical report examining government progress in delivering Universal Credit and the problems there have been in implementing the programme. The Committee found serious problems with the IT development and the management of the Universal Credit programme, saying in its report that:

·         it is highly likely that a substantial part of the expenditure on IT development for Universal Credit will have to be written off - up to £300 million.

·         oversight of the Universal Credit programme has been characterised by a failure to understand properly the nature and enormity of the task, a failure to monitor and challenge progress regularly, and a failure to intervene promptly when problems arose.

The report outlines a number of recommendations for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to consider.  Download a copy of the report from the Parliament website.

DWP Slammed For 'Shocking Lack of Financial Control' On Universal Credit

A ‘good news only’ culture masked a ‘shocking lack of financial control’ of the government’s Universal Credit programme, as it emerged £140 million has been wasted on IT systems that cannot be used. This is the damning view of a cross-party committee, which slammed the DWP for ‘extraordinarily poor management’ over the flagship welfare reform which rolls several benefits into one single payment made direct to claimants.  The report says £140 million spent on IT assets will have to be written off, as they are unsuitable for use in the programme. A DWP spokesperson said it expects this to be substantially lower. Control over suppliers was ‘shocking’, with personal assistants signing off on multi-million purchase orders and individual payments that could not be linked to work delivered, the committee claimed. Download a copy of the report from the Parliament website.

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.

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.

Universal Credit Project Riddled With Problems

The National Audit Office said universal credit, the £2.4bn project meant to consolidate six welfare payments into one, has been beset by "weak management, ineffective control and poor governance".  Ministers have already written off £34m wasted on failed IT programmes for the project run by the Department for Work and Pensions and may be forced to delay its national launch beyond 2017, the NAO says.  The report was seized upon by Labour as evidence that Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has covered up significant problems that could put welfare claimants and their families at risk. Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pension secretary, described universal credit as a "Titanic-sized IT disaster". Download a copy of the report from the NAO website.