Forum Home → Discussion → Universal credit migration → Thread
Speed of UC roll out
Last week in the Secretary of State’s universal credit statement, Esther McVey said that:
The NAO made it clear that the pace could do with speeding up. .... It said that we should speed up the pace
And in yesterday’s DWP oral questions, she said it again:
Yes, in the report it says just that. It says that it needs to continue to go forward and it needs to continue at a faster rate.
... and I thought this was odd because I couldn’t find where the NAO had said that in its report.
However, on reading yesterday’s oral questions further, all becomes clear(er) .... asked about how she squares her comments about speeding up the scheme with what the NAO actually said, the Secretary of State said -
The report said that we should carry on with universal credit and that the roll-out should not be slower. The very reference to it not being slower was to ensure that it is sped up.
(Although I still can’t see where the NAO says that the roll-out should not be slower. Instead it says things like “We think that there is no practical alternative to continuing with Universal Credit” and “The Department does not have a realistic alternative but to continue”. If anything it does suggest that it should be slower .. for example, it says that the DWP needs to “ensure that operational performance and costs improve sustainably before increasing caseloads through managed migration” .... did I miss something else?)
[ Edited: 3 Jul 2018 at 12:12 pm by shawn mach ]It’s not you.
It’s her.
The howling sound you may hear is of the truth being bent until it can no longer bear the strain.
Again.
Any road, wasn’t the NAO report supposed to be ‘shoddy’?????
I have now seen calls to speed up, slow down, pause, change course, do more test and learn, become more agile. etc
Unfortunately predicting the final destination of an object travelling at an unknown speed, that is already exhibiting an irregular line of travel, is mightily problematic…
Well at least to me…..
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
“The head of the National Audit Office (NAO) has taken the highly unusual step of writing to Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey to complain of inaccuracies in her statement to Parliament on the watchdog’s critical report about the roll-out of universal credit (UC), the Press Association reports. The PA story goes on:
“Auditor General Sir Amyas Morse said it was “odd” that McVey told MPs that the NAO did not take into account recent changes in the administration of UC, when the report had in fact been “fully agreed” with senior officials at the Department for Work and Pensions only days earlier.
“He said that McVey’s claim that the NAO was concerned that universal credit was rolling out too slowly was “not correct”.
“Her assurance, in response to the report, that universal credit was working was also “not proven”, said Sir Amyas in his open letter.”
It’s about time somebody called them out for their “inaccuracies” (lies). Thank you, Sir Amyas. (Not that I suppose anything will be achieved:- I think the problem may be that the DWP actually believe the tripe they regularly exude, so divorced are they from reality.)
DWP are currently bigging up work allowances - after the changes made in 2016. Turns out they weren’t cut, as we all thought, but “simplified”.
It really is reminiscent of Orwell, isn’t it. Scary stuff!
Caroline Lucas - ‘Things have reached a new low when the National Audit Office accuses a Cabinet Minister of lying. #UniversalCredit is failing, and if Esther McVey is not up to the job of sorting it out – as seems to be the case – then she has to go.’
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary:
“This is a very serious matter. Esther McVey appears to have misled Parliament in misrepresenting the findings of the NAO report.
“She sought to rubbish the NAO report, rather than respond to its findings, which were damning of her Government’s flagship social security policy, even though her own department had agreed the report prior to its publication.
“She must now make a full apology to the NAO, to Parliament and to the people who rely on Universal Credit for support. If she won’t then she should consider her position because people’s lives are being ruined by this botched policy rollout.”
Prime Minister says the Work and Pensions Secretary will be “correcting the record” at the despatch box after PMQs ...
Prime Minister says the Work and Pensions Secretary will be “correcting the record” at the despatch box after PMQs ...
Here we go: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/1ce1d9b9-6dff-4109-b07c-f3372d21da95?in=12:52:42&out=12:57:05
To borrow from high culture:
“I did not mean to say all of those things that I have just ******* said.” (Derek and Clive)
She has apologised for “inadvertently” misleading the house with her statement that the NAO report called for an acceleration of the Roll-Out process.
Exactly what part of that statement was “inadvertent”????????
It was a deliberate falsehood. If she is sorry about anything, it’s that her lies were called out.