Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Rejected
Paragraph: 23
The systems that legacy benefits run on are not fit for purpose.
Conclusion
The systems that legacy benefits run on are not fit for purpose. It is disappointing that the Department has not adapted its IT systems to allow for flexibility in uprating these benefits to respond to national events. The Department has scheduled and then delayed the migration of claimants from legacy benefits onto Universal Credit several times and the current date to complete this process for many is the end of 2024, leaving legacy benefits still in use for a considerable period. The Department must be able to uprate legacy benefits swiftly in times of high inflation. The Department should also publish (or at least provide to the Committee) for each benefit the details of the process, complexities and time required for the uprating exercise. We repeat our recommendation that the DWP work to increase the speed with which changes can be made to legacy benefit and state pension rates.
Government Response Summary
The government rejects making IT changes to uprate legacy benefits because working-age legacy benefits are closing and those legacy claimants will be moved to UC by 2024. They also have no plans to change the up-rating period.
Paragraph Reference:
23
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The temporary uplift in Universal Credit (UC) was intended to support those most affected financially by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic when being newly unemployed. The cost-of-living situation now is different and affects everyone. One-off payments are the quickest way to deliver support to over 8 million customers in receipt of income related benefits and 6 million customers receiving disability benefits before the next benefit up- rating in April 2023. Over 8 million pensioner households will also receive a pensioner cost of living payment alongside their winter fuel payment this coming winter. The Secretary of State commences her statutory annual review of benefits and State Pensions in the autumn using the most recent prices and earnings indices available. DWP IT systems other than UC, have a deadline of the last weekend in November to allow for all the required processes to take place to ensure the new payment rates come into force from the following April. Given working-age legacy benefits are closing and those legacy claimants will be moved to UC by 2024, we will not be making any IT changes. There are no plans to change the up-rating period: using a consistent period for up-rating, for example, the 12 months to September to measure inflation means any peaks and troughs even out over time. For example, in 2012 benefits were increased by 5.2%; whereas by the following April CPI was 3% and in 2020 the increase was 1.7%; while CPI fell to 0.8% by April.