Conveniently for Iain Duncan Smith, this year’s DWP accounts were not published to coincide with his appearance at the work and pensions select committee yesterday; some may say it’s now clear why.
In the accounts, which have now been released, the National Audit Office states that Universal Credit has “not achieved value for money”, noting that the DWP has written off £40.1m of assets developed for the programme “as it will never use them” and that “it also now expects to write down £91.0 million of the remaining assets to nil value by March 2018, due to the considerable reduction in their expected useful life.” The head of the NAO comments: “While this is the appropriate accounting treatment, it should not detract from the underlying issue that the Department has spent £91.0 million on assets that will only support a limited service for 5 years, with clear consequences for public value.” In addition, it notes that there were “considerable weaknesses” in the department’s financial controls over Universal Credit and that the “size and complexity” of the programme “stretched the Department’s capacity and capability”.
Here’s the statement Margaret Hodge, the head of the public accounts committee, has issued on the “truly shocking” figures.
In 2012-13, the Department for Work and Pensions had to write-off £40.1m for assets that were developed for the implementation of the universal credit system but which they will now never use. They now tell us they will also have to write-off another £91m of assets over the next five years.
Whilst these figures are truly shocking, I do not think we have heard the end of this matter and would not be surprised if further write-offs emerge over the coming period. It is deeply depressing that DWP has chosen to pour more money into the existing IT system in what seems like a short-term fix, rather than showing the confidence and foresight to come up with a solution that will truly stand the test of time.
Even for those people who transfer to the new benefit, the online system is currently not able to deal with issues like frequent changes of circumstances, claims if a couple splits up, or conditionality.
In more bad news for IDS, the report also shows that the amount of money lost to fraud and error in the benefits system has risen from £3.2bn (2% of the total budget) last year to £3.5bn (2.1%). Of this total, £700m (0.4%) was lost due to official error, £1.6bn (0.9%) to claimant error and £1.2bn (0.7%) to fraud.
Incidentally, it’s worth noting that the latter figure is lower than the amount lost last year due to benefit underpayments: £1.4bn (0.9%). But don’t expect the DWP to publicise that in its briefings.
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