Universal Credit: progress update report

Tue,24 February 2015
News

The Department for Work and Pensions has spent £700 million on Universal Credit since the programme began in 2010

According to the Public Accounts Committee's report published today, 25 February, very little progress has been achieved on the front line. Fewer than 18,000 people were claiming Universal Credit by October 2014, out of around seven million expected in the longer term – just 0.3% of the eligible population.

The report notes that the IT infrastructure for Universal Credit continues to be of particular concern. Only one tenth of the £344 million spent will be re-used. The live systems are technically limited and expensive to operate because they require manual intervention.

Recommendations

  • The Department must set out clearly what it has really gained from its spending so far, including from the piloting of the programme, and from the investment in live service IT systems.
  • The Department should set out publicly its current milestones for what it expects to achieve at different points in the programme, and clearly explain any future changes to the scope, cost and timings of these.
  • The Department must establish more robust and costed contingency plans for how it would handle further delays in the digital service, including a thorough examination of whether it would be practical and affordable to use the current live service for this role.
  • The Department needs to reflect on how it will tackle the potential problems of paying the housing benefit element of Universal Credit directly to claimants.

“We refer this issue to the Communities and Local Government Committee and ask their successors in the new Parliament to review whether paying the housing benefit element of Universal Credit directly to claimants is working.”