Labour claims IT woes have stalled universal credit
Labour has claimed that the government’s plans to introduce universal credit in the autumn have hit the buffers after workers on its £500 million IT delivery system were told to abandon the project.
Shadow employment minister Stephen Timms is expected to challenge work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith in a House of Commons debate later this afternoon.
The Department for Work and Pensions has denied the claim and said plans for an April roll out of the scheme, ahead of its implementation in October, are still on track.
A spokesperson for shadow work and pensions minister Liam Byrne said Labour had picked up reports last week that one of the contractors, Accenture, ‘had been told to down tools’ by the DWP.
‘We are very very, very confident that this is correct and it’s only a matter of time before the government has to admit it,’ added the spokesperson. ‘The government will have to explain this at some stage.’
Mr Byrne said: ‘Universal credit has descended into universal chaos and millions of families’ tax credits are at risk because ministers would not listen to clear and repeated warnings issued to them since November 2010.
‘Iain Duncan Smith must now come before parliament and account for the incompetent mess his department has become. His work programme is worse than doing nothing, his bedroom tax hits soldiers but not prisoners, and now his flagship universal credit scheme is falling apart.
‘We were promised universal credit would be the answer to all our prayers but now it has descended into one giant mess.’
A DWP spokesperson said: ‘It’s categorically not true to say that work has stopped on universal credit. All our suppliers are working with us to deliver universal credit from April. Our plans have not changed.’
A spokesperson for Accenture said: ‘We continue to work hard with the DWP, together with other suppliers, to deliver universal credit for the April roll out and beyond.’
A source familiar with the situation told Inside Housing that some sub-contractors had expressed concern around the ability to deliver the system on time last year.
‘There were going to be all sorts of problems with the IT because of the complexity of the task,’ said the source.
The system is intended to centralise the payment of universal credit, which will bring together a range of benefits into a single monthly payment.
Last November, a committee of MPs warned that the timetable for the implementation of the project was ‘ambitious’.
