By Steve Ranger, 26 January 2007 17:00
NEWS
The government wants to slash the £2bn it loses every year in benefits overpayments by implementing more joined-up computer systems.
In the 2005/06 financial year roughly £1.9bn was overpaid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as a result of errors in the benefits system - with the complex nature of the rules governing the benefits system and poor IT integration among the reasons for the extra generosity.
But DWP minister James Plaskitt said the department expected to cut this by £1bn by 2012. "We have had great success in reducing benefit fraud. We now intend to apply the same drive and determination to reduce customer and official error," he said in a statement.
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The DWP said while many benefits are linked to each other, business processes are not fully automated so errors can creep in as staff have to make calculations offline.
Where systems are not integrated, staff need to use paper to let other parts of the department have information - and when documents get lost more errors occur.
As the DWP report points out: "Those parts of benefit processing which are fully automated and integrated - requiring little or no routine staff intervention - operate well. Where the system requires input from our staff, the potential for error entering the system increases."
Future systems will be designed to make it impossible for staff to process a benefit claim without following the correct process or entering all the required information. The DWP said this is its "long-term ambition".
In the short term it will work through a programme of system fixes to stop the most costly errors. And the DWP is also introducing a new computer system, the Customer Information System, which will share basic customer information such as name, address and rate of other benefits in payment across the department.
In the longer term, it said it wants customers to submit claims directly into its IT systems via the internet.
Comments
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1. Richard Davies
Because staff have to calculate things offline obviously has the potential for error but shouldn't be the case if the employee is on the ball and has been trained correctly.
I believe that computer systems etc. mean that nowadays new starters are not trained properly and thats the problem. People rely too much on CASE tools nowadays and find that as a result when these are taken away or not available...they haven't got a clue.
This is not the employees fault...rather the business is probably now saving money on training costs whilst also getting employees productive quicker.
2. Simon
Perhaps they should look at the problem from a different angle - is the problem that the systems aren't up to it, or that the rules and regulations are unneccessarily complex ?
I fear we are sliding rapidly into a quagmire of excess regulation (in all areas, not just benefits) because there are too many people who feel that their job is to create rules rather than simplify what's there.
A constant refrain from those in charge of trying to introduce new systems is that the politicians who drive these changes demand massive changes with short timescales. This is not because it's the right thing, but because it's the right thing to be seen to be doing.
Perhaps it's time for those at the top to stop and listen to what the experts tell them, then perhaps we'd hear less stories like this. Unfortunately I think porcine aviation is more likely !
3. Richard
Who is advising this Minister?
>>"Future systems will be designed to make it impossible for staff to process a benefit claim without following the correct process or entering all the required information."<<
Previous disasters & massive backlogs have been caused by this crazy policy!
The backlogs have only been cleared by DWP staff "inventing" missing info. to complete the forms - otherwise, DWP systems don't accept even valid applications.
The Benefits System is far too complex and too far removed from the staff who actually deal with the claimants.
Many of these "errors" and "overpayments" are actually when someone's circumstances change: Often, they are still entitled to roughly the same money (or more money), but from a different benefit.
Remember also the large number of people who do not claim or receive their entitlements.
1. The Benefits System should be simplified.
2. Gordon Brown's obsession with "targeted," ie. Means tested, benefits should be reversed.
3. The Whitehall policy units should be scrapped, in favour of "front-line" staff who actually know what is really happening.
4. The crazy policy of closing local offices, in favour of distant call-centres and large regional offices should be reversed: This policy results provides nice cushy jobs for managers but in a much poorer, less effective service. It also means that some of the poorest, most vulnerable people have to make long expensive journeys.