UK watchdog accuses DWP of hiding failings

The UK’s spending watchdog has accused ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of hiding the failures of the government’s troubled universal credit scheme.

The parliamentary watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, said in a report published by The Guardian on Monday that the DWP ministers tried to hide the failings by imposing a new rating termed “reset” on the three-year old project.

The watchdog said it was concerned that the Major Projects Authority specifically awarded the reset term to the troubled credit scheme in a bid to prevent scrutiny, as the new rating has not been applied to another scheme.

“We are particularly concerned that the decision to award a ‘reset’ rating to the universal credit project was an attempt to keep information secret and prevent scrutiny,” said the committee.

According to the report, the new reset rating meant that the credit scheme was not rated by the Major Projects Authority in this year’s annual report and there will not be assessment of the project’s progress until May 2015.

“This is a long time to wait for an update on a project as important as universal credit,” said the committee.

Margaret Hodge, the chair of the committee, said the problems within the scheme could have been disclosed if the MPA had published information regarding the project.

The credit scheme has been criticized by successive watchdogs for failing to report problems the DWP has experienced with the technology, such as administrative errors and computer glitches, which caused a number of claimants’ payments to go missing.

The 2.4-billion pound scheme was launched in 2011 by Work and Pension Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and involves merging six different benefits, with the claimant receiving a single monthly household payment.