Real time information reporting system struggling to match records

The Guardian recently reported that the challenge faced by the technology required for universal credit (UC) has been revealed, by figures showing that the real time information reporting system required to match employers and banks’ records appears to be failing up to 25% of the time.

This follows a written answer by Treasury secretary, David Gauke, which revealed that the system underpinning UC failed for over a quarter of pilot cases in November. Gauke’s answers to a parliamentary question on 17 December 2012, showed that in more than half a million cases that month, the IT system could not match wage payment records correctly, with Labour sources claiming that Revenue & Customs “will have to decide to make universal credit payments on the basis of incomplete, or plain wrong, information”.

For the Guardian story, see Universal credit welfare pilot beset by IT failures