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The new government service to support the flagship benefit reform is apparently only supported by 3 employees.Ā  The public has ascertained this information through... UK Government Benefits IT System Highly Understaffed

The new government service to support the flagship benefit reform is apparently only supported by 3 employees.Ā  The public has ascertained this information through an annual report, despiteĀ assurances from the Department of Work and PensionsĀ that their new IT system is able to handle Universal Credit. TheĀ DWPā€™s annual reportĀ reveals that the project to build the system is staffed by only 3 employees.

Universal Credit is part of the major overhaul of Britainā€™s benefits system.Ā  It combines several existing benefits and services into one.

According to a report byĀ IDG, the project appears to be fairly understaffed and is now in danger of losing its political backing, despite announcing it plans to spend up to Ā£32 million on developing the system before a national rollout in 2017.Ā  This is Ā part of the dramatic overhaul to the system costing Ā£2.4 billion.

UC IT Issues

The delays to the system are proving to beĀ both a major expenditure and source of worry for the current government. The DWP have called for more support from theĀ Cabinet Officeā€™s Government Digital Service (GDS), which is being developed by companies including BT, IBM, HP and Accenture.Ā  The service was criticised for not being flexible, scalable or even secure enough!

The GDS is now withdrawing from the project.Ā  This leaves the DWP to get on with the problem on their own.Ā  GDS will, however keep five of its employees on the Universal Credit digital project due to its involvement with developing the background infrastructure, this is a so called ā€˜digital spineā€™ which will replace the existing Universal Credit system when the benefit is eventually rolled out across the nation.

Reports that the project was in trouble were denied recently by a DWP spokesperson, who informedĀ TechWeekEuropeĀ thatĀ ā€œwe have been very clear that DWP would take over development of the new digital service following the initial GDS workā€¦Our current plans will see all new benefit claimants claiming Universal Credit by 2016, with most existing benefit claimants moving onto Universal Credit during 2016 and 2017.ā€Ā  But it appears as though the DWP is now aiming to combat this human resource issue, through a recruitment drive, which wants to employ up to 50 new IT specialists for the digital Universal Credit service.

Chris Bryant MP, Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, told IDG that the situation was deeply troubling.Ā  ā€œItā€™s worrying to discover that after the spat with Francis Maude and the Government Digital Service, DWP currently only has 3 IT specialists working on the digital solution to Iain Duncan Smithā€™s delayed and over-budget Universal Credit projectā€¦We know that DWP itself estimates that 50 IT specialists will be required to continue this work ā€“ quite the deficit. IDS should start focusing on delivering a policy that works, rather than fighting colleagues and blaming officials.ā€ he said.

[Image viaĀ thisismoney]

SOURCE: http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/universal-credit-system-lacking-government-staff-136280