Universal Credit Scheme has Lost over £140 Million

Universal Credit Scheme 'Has Lost Over £140m'

The Government's flagship benefit reform is "alarmingly weak" with MPs saying it will not hit enrollment targets for 2014.

4:17am UK, Thursday 07 November 2013

The Government wants to get more people off benefits and gainfully employed
Some £425m has already been spent on the Universal Credit scheme












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Universal Credit has been savaged by MPs for "shocking" failures that have already wasted at least £140m.

The scheme has been blighted by "alarmingly weak" management, with secretaries allowed to authorise purchase orders worth more than £20m.

In some cases it is unclear what suppliers have been paid for.

The cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also voiced doubts about whether the project can still be fully delivered by 2017 - branding a pilot "inadequate" and open to fraud.

Universal Credit is due to replace a bundle of means-tested benefits in four years' time, with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisting it can ensure people are always better off in jobs and save £38bn by 2023.

Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith says Universal Credit can save £38bn by 2023

However, a former Olympics executive had to be drafted in earlier this year to "reset" the programme amid concerns over delays and IT issues.

The PAC report said the Department for Work and Pensions had "neglected to implement basic procedures for monitoring and authorising expenditure".

The MPs said: "We saw evidence that purchase orders with a total value of £8.7m were approved by a personal assistant to the Programme Director.

"In another case, two purchase orders, one for £22.6m and one for £1.1m, were approved by a personal assistant to the Programme Director whose delegated financial authority at the time of approvals was only £10m.

"When the Department made individual payments to suppliers these could not be linked to particular pieces of work that had been delivered."

PAC chair Margaret Hodge said the implementation of Universal Credit so far had been "extraordinarily poor".

She said: "The failure to develop a comprehensive plan has led to extensive delay and the waste of a yet to be determined amount of public money.

"£425m has been spent so far on the programme. It is likely that much of this, including at least £140m worth of IT assets, will now have to be written off.

"The management of the programme has been alarmingly weak. From the outset, the Department has failed to grasp the nature and enormity of the task; failed to monitor and challenge progress regularly; and, when problems arose, failed to intervene promptly."

The MPs said the project would not hit its current target of enrolling 184,000 claimants by April 2014.

As a result the later stages would have to be speeded up to meet the 2017 completion date - but that would "pose new risks

I DID READ A FEW DAYS THAT A LOT OF MONEY HAS BEEN WASTED,BUT YOU GOT THERE FIRST.
SOME BIG EMERENCY IDEAS NEEDD TO BE IMPLENTENTED.

Quote from article.
The Government wants to get more people off benefits and gainfully employed
Some £425m has already been spent on the Universal Credit scheme
Unquote.

The answer....
Stop flooding the country with cheap foreign labour!!!

malena stool wrote:Quote from article.
The Government wants to get more people off benefits and gainfully employed
Some £425m has already been spent on the Universal Credit scheme
Unquote.

The answer....
Stop flooding the country with cheap foreign labour!!!

More importantly malena, eeducate the children to a standard where we wouldn't have to import labour.!! The sooner we leave the EU the more control we will have and can cap immigration like Australia are doing.

Panda wrote:

malena stool wrote:Quote from article.
The Government wants to get more people off benefits and gainfully employed
Some £425m has already been spent on the Universal Credit scheme
Unquote.

The answer....
Stop flooding the country with cheap foreign labour!!!

More importantly malena, eeducate the children to a standard where we wouldn't have to import labour.!! The sooner we leave the EU the more control we will have and can cap immigration like Australia are doing.

We had one of the most progressive education systems in the world here in the UK. Many if not most of today's technology and it's associated achievements can trace it's roots to these islands. But it was all thrown away by asinine, corrupt politicians and greedy businessmen under consecutive political administrations since Thatcher. Their constant search for more return on less investments has stripped these islands of tradesmen and engineers to the old Commonwealth and USA, replacing them with the unskilled detritus of Europe and the Sub Continent.
But more importantly they have forced out those with the initiative to think.

I READ SOMEWHERE MORE RECENT THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE TO WRITE OFF WHOLE SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL CREDIT.
IF SO,IT COULD BE THE BIGGEST FAILURE YET.

Badboy wrote:I READ SOMEWHERE MORE RECENT THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE TO  WRITE OFF WHOLE SYSTEM OF UNIVERSAL CREDIT.
IF SO,IT COULD BE THE BIGGEST FAILURE YET.

They have already written it off badboy .it was a dopey idea in the first place, trying to tie up all the Benefits and was obviously not thought out properly, that's what you get for having dundernuts instead of
Ministers instead of economists. 

any idea if /when there are going to admit failure.

There is the fact that people on benefits can be very picky about what job they do.  Why don't they do a lesser job until something better comes along.  It is also easier to get another job whilst you are in one.

When I was young I was trained in accounts but I did anything when needs must.  When my son was small I did anything to earn some money as I could not do a full time job.  I did waitressing at night, worked in a bar, was a postie, worked part time in a factory, sold Avon, took round catalogues, sold Betterware. worked in a leather place sticking and gumming.  I could go on and on with the jobs I did.   When my son was older I went back to what I was trained for. Also in later years if I ever found myself out of an accounts job then I would do whatever was on hand.  My Parents and  grandparents were the same.   When I was small my Mother cleaned a doctors house in the mornings (took me with her) then worked in a fish and chip shop at night. All my family have always worked hard and so have I and now so does my son. whatever has happened to work ethic?  Too easy not to bother.

The reason that immigrants are welcome is because they do these jobs.  Many of today's unemployed set their sights very high with qualifications that are not worth the paper they are written on.   They seem as though they will not take anything that involves a bit of hard work.  they all want to sit in front of a computer. So are quite happy to claim benefits and do it at home whilst waiting around for someone to come and give them  fabulous job with pots of money with the minimum of work involved.  Or else become a celebrity

Yes the education system is dismal, thanks to the Blair years and one of the worst things was the apprenticeships going. No one wants manual work anymore anyway.   What the hell are we all going to do when all the builders, carpenters, plumbers and electricians have died off?  

I do however acknowledge that there are many people who try hard and cannot get work

Rant over

IF THEY ARE IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER,THEY COULD DO PAID SURVEYS AND PAID -TO-CLICK.
ALSO UPLOAD CVS TO WEBSITES

fuzeta wrote:There is the fact that people on benefits can be very picky about what job they do.  Why don't they do a lesser job until something better comes along.  It is also easier to get another job whilst you are in one.

When I was young I was trained in accounts but I did anything when needs must.  When my son was small I did anything to earn some money as I could not do a full time job.  I did waitressing at night, worked in a bar, was a postie, worked part time in a factory, sold Avon, took round catalogues, sold Betterware. worked in a leather place sticking and gumming.  I could go on and on with the jobs I did.   When my son was older I went back to what I was trained for. Also in later years if I ever found myself out of an accounts job then I would do whatever was on hand.  My Parents and  grandparents were the same.   When I was small my Mother cleaned a doctors house in the mornings (took me with her) then worked in a fish and chip shop at night. All my family have always worked hard and so have I and now so does my son. whatever has happened to work ethic?  Too easy not to bother.

The reason that immigrants are welcome is because they do these jobs.  Many of today's unemployed set their sights very high with qualifications that are not worth the paper they are written on.   They seem as though they will not take anything that involves a bit of hard work.  they all want to sit in front of a computer. So are quite happy to claim benefits and do it at home whilst waiting around for someone to come and give them  fabulous job with pots of money with the minimum of work involved.  Or else become a celebrity

Yes the education system is dismal, thanks to the Blair years and one of the worst things was the apprenticeships going. No one wants manual work anymore anyway.   What the hell are we all going to do when all the builders, carpenters, plumbers and electricians have died off?  

I do however acknowledge that there are many people who try hard and cannot get work

Rant over

MY BROTHER THINKS AN UNIVERSITY WILL EMPLOY HIM WITH HIS CONVICTION,I TOLD HIM HE IS BEING UNREALISTIC.

Depends what his conviction is.

its for downloading k**** p*rn.

If that is true then i think he is being unrealistic too.

Lioned wrote:If that is true then i think he is being unrealistic too.

I DISCOVERED HIS CONVICTION LOOKING ON INTERNET.
OTS OF PEOPLE SEEM TO HAVE UNREALISTIC LIFE GOALS

IDS SAYS UNVERSAL CREDIT WILL BE FULLY IMPLETEMENTED BEYONF 2017!

ids was before a parliamentary committee ASKINGABOUT THE COSTS.

THEY HAVE SACKED A LOT OF STAFF ONSCHEME,LOOKS LIKE STARTING OVER AGAIN

I thought they had abandoned the scheme Badboy.

THE SCHEME MUST GO ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badboy wrote:THE SCHEME MUST GO ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a different format though Badboy I think. When you think of all the Benefits people can get the cost to the Treasury must be colossal. I think one of the clauses now is that no child benefit will be paid for more than 3 children.Makes good sense, the Families with 10 0r 11 children are getting colossal benefite, bigger House for starters. If they want all those children they must be able to support them themselves.

LABOUR ARE SAYING THERE MUST BE AN INVESTIGATION INTO COST OF SCHEME