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Universal credit in danger of failing
The first official government admission that Iain Duncan Smith’s flagship plans to remake the welfare state has hit trouble emerged on Friday night when the Cabinet Office’s review of all major Whitehall projects branded the universal credit programme as having fallen into “amber-red” status, a category designating a project in danger of failing.
http://guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/24/universal-credit-danger-failing-whitehall-review
oh!
... it’s not just universal credit ..... but PIP; Fraud & error; the Benefit Cap; and Child Maintenance are also rated ‘amber/red’
here’s the data .. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-major-projects-portfolio-data-for-dwp-2013 …
... and this evening’s cabinet office press release https://www.gov.uk/government/news/details-of-governments-major-projects-revealed
Morning all
I read these as well. The spreadsheet quotes as follows:
“This rating dates back to September 2012, more than seven months ago.
Since then, significant progress has been made in the delivery of Universal Credit. The Pathfinder was successfully launched and we are on course both to expand the Pathfinder in July 2013 and start the progressive national roll-out of Universal Credit in October.”
Further, it offers the following:
“The Universal Credit Pathfinder was successfully launched on 29th April in areas of Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
Ashton-under-Lyne is accepting claims for Universal Credit. Wigan, Warrington and Oldham are trialling the Claimant Commitment and applying a more intensive approach to work search and ensuring new JSA claimants are signed onto Universal Jobmatch.
We are on course to expand the Pathfinder in July when Wigan Warrington and Oldham will also take claims for Universal Credit.
This careful and controlled approach will ensure that all aspects of Universal Credit are tested – starting small and refining before we start the progressive national roll out from October.
Our plan is to make sure the full transition to Universal Credit is delivered in a safe and managed way.
In terms of how we manage delivery implementation from the start of progressive roll-out in October to full transition in 2017, there are three key factors we will consider.
First, we will learn valuable lessons from the Pathfinder – that is the whole point of a Pathfinder. We will examine the results forensically, and apply them in rolling out Universal Credit nationally.
Second, David Pitchford has been acting as interim Chief Executive for Universal Credit following the sad death of Philip Langsdale. As Head of the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority, he has provided valuable insights into the most effective way to deliver a complex IT project of this scale, in line with the Government’s Digital Strategy – including latest thinking on the best enabling technologies and platforms, how best to manage suppliers and deliver value to money.
Third, Howard Shiplee, the man that built the Olympic Park, has now taken over from David Pitchford in overseeing the delivery of Universal Credit. He will be using these ideas in finalising the detail of the long-term delivery plan for UC, together with his own wealth of experience in successful project delivery.”
Now there are one of two conclusions one can draw, in my view. Either the Dept has heeded the warning a adopted a more conservative approach to implementation OR it is such a dog’s breakfast that they hope to keep it quiet until after the election by allowing implementation to slip. But then the latter would mean the Dept is as cynical as me.
If they were to let it slip they’d have delayed the pathfinder; we all know that the IT is in pieces still.
My fear is that they’re going to extend their ad hoc systems and progress to a national implementation. There are too many senior reputations at stake not to push forward, full steam ahead.
We will be left with a farce that will put the Tax Credits debacle to shame and leave many more claimants in more profound hardship than the noughties.
My gaffer called it a “world of pain”... I can’t really fault that!
I’d be interested to know what’s going wrong with PIP…
The problem with DWP now saying that “all the problems were back in Sept 2012; it’s all fine now” is that, back in Sept 2012 they were saying “it’s all fine”.
A real issue of credibility…...
hi andy -
yes, for example, on 11 sept 2012 there had been a commons debate, where IDS had said ...
‘.... we are not over budget on the programme and we are not out of time. Both are proceeding much according to the plans that we laid ...’
So just to be explicit has the MPA contradicted IDS’s speech to Parliament last September?
That is to my mind would be worse than the Dept’s continual twisting of statistics.
i find it ironic that under UC a claimant can be fined or maybe even prosecuted for giving false information, even if its a negligent omission in their claim details. IDS and his department continually misrepresents facts and figures, and basically spends a majority of his time telling porky pies allegedly.
Perhaps IDS would be more careful if he faced a fine for omitting or presenting incorrect information?
The amount of times he does this, we could reduce the deficit substantially using an attachment of earnings on him!
One thing that I am surprised has not been picked up more strongly is that the head of the MPA quoted in the article has recently returned from a secondment to another job…...heading up the implementation of Unversal Credit.
Difficult to see how the DWP can argue that his information is out of date.