Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 51
51
Rejected
Paragraph: 230
It is disappointing that suggestions to improve Universal Credit have apparently been thwarted by an...
Conclusion
It is disappointing that suggestions to improve Universal Credit have apparently been thwarted by an IT system which was supposed to be developed in an agile fashion, yet seems to be anything but. It is unfortunate that such a rigid, clunky IT structure was adopted for UC which makes improvements required by Ministers and needed by claimants harder to implement, adding greater costs to benefit administration.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government rejects the committee's characterisation of the Universal Credit IT system as rigid and clunky, instead asserting its agility and strong performance in supporting claimants throughout the pandemic, maintaining high payment timeliness.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
230
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government · verbatim extract
Rejected
The Committee has repeatedly pointed out how well Universal Credit (UC) has performed across the pandemic. We have adapted our processes and practices in an agile way, enabling us to support an unprecedented increase in claimants whilst responding to the specific challenge of working in a world of social distancing. Payment timeliness has remained high at above 90% for the duration of the pandemic despite there now being 5.7m individual claims.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗