Verify not Very good says NAO

Tue,5 March 2019
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National Audit Office (NAO) report on Verify, the government’s flagship identity verification portal.

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You can use Verify to sign up to government services on the GOV.UK website and pick a commercial identity provider, such as Barclays, Digidentity, Experian, Post Office, to check and verify your identity.

Nineteen government services use Verify (less than the 46 expected to by March 2018), including the Department for Work & Pensions (universal credit) and HM Revenue & Customs (tax refund).

The NAO found Verify’s performance to be consistently below the standards initially set, and take-up among the public and departments has been much lower than expected.

Only 38 per cent of universal credit claimants who've tried can successfully verify their identity online.

In 2016 GDS forecast that 25 million people would use Verify by 2020. By February 2019, 3.6 million people had signed up for the service. If current trends continue, approximately 5.4 million users will have signed up by 2020.