DWP's Universal Credit programme delayed by six more months
MPs say they're disappointed at persistent lack of clarity and evasive responses from DWP
The Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) much-criticised roll-out of its Universal Credit programme is to be delayed yet again, meaning that it now expects the end date for moving all benefits claimants onto the system to be March 2021.
The revelation comes as MPs on the Public Accounts Committee examine the progress of Universal Credit one year after labelling the project a £700m flop that had managed only "very little progress".
This was after extensive delays that the committee previously blamed on a lack of financial and other internal controls.
Now, the PAC have found that DWP expects to complete the roll-out of the digital service six months later than previously planned, while the Office for Budget Responsibility also forecasts a further six month delay to the full implementation of Universal Credit.
"The Department should endeavour to minimise any delays, as it estimated in 2014 that every six month delay reduces the programme's benefits by £2.3bn," the PAC said in its most recent report.
"The Department should ensure that it has a strong emphasis on realising the benefits of the programme. It told us that the senior responsible owner had overall responsibility for ensuring that the programme's forecast benefits materialise but did not explain how this would be done in practice," it added.
The PAC added that it remained disappointed by the "persistent lack of clarity and evasive responses" by the Department to its inquiries, particularly about the extent and impact of delays.
It said that the Department's response to the previous recommendations that it set out in last year's Universal Credit: progress update report "doesn't convince us that it is committed to improving transparency about the programme's progress".
The scheme, designed to merge six different types of benefit into a single monthly payment, has had problems since its inception, with various delays and at least £130m in taxpayer money being written off.