Recommendations & Conclusions
12 items
4
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
The Department has not set out in sufficient detail how it will assess whether it is achieving what it wants from its investment in fraud prevention measures. We have previously found that the Department lacks the ability to demonstrate that its counter-fraud activities are having the intended impact and are …
Government response. The government agrees and reports savings of £2 billion achieved in 2021-22 through counter-fraud function. They acknowledge that the NAO has yet to endorse this framework but is committed to working together ahead of the 2022-23 ARA to ensure this …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
The Department’s efforts to correct the systemic underpayment of State Pension are too slow to meaningfully put things right. The Department now estimates that 237,000 pensioners have been underpaid a total of £1.46 billion in their State Pension. Despite these underpayments going back as far as 1985, the Department’s overall …
Government response. The government agrees and states that work is underway in HMRC, supported by the department, to understand more about the scale, potential causes, and options to correct historical errors relating to Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP). They also mention a list …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
We have repeatedly recommended that the Department should set targets for fraud and error reduction across the benefits it administers, most recently as part of our examination of the Department’s 2021–22 Annual Report and Accounts.12 In its response the Department reconfirmed its intention to set an overall target for fraud …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation, previously given, to set a target and work with the National Audit Office (NAO) to develop commentary, with a target implementation date of Summer 2023, and will keep the Committee up to date …
HM Treasury
9
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
We asked the Department when it expected to be able to set a target for reducing fraud and error. It referred to its letter to the Committee of May 2022 and reiterated it still did not believe that it was able to set a target because of the uncertainty in …
Government response. The government agrees to set a target for reducing fraud and error and will work with the National Audit Office (NAO) to develop commentary.
HM Treasury
13
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
We asked the Department how it ensured that vulnerable claimants were taken into account, in particular when it uses data analytics and machine learning. The Department told us that it was considering and testing for vulnerability “at every stage”.23 It acknowledged that that its data analytics tools focused on characteristics …
Government response. The government is committed to ensuring that all the right assurances and governance is in place for its data and analytics functions, in relation to its fraud and error response and considering the best method on reporting this information to …
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
We have previously found that the Department lacks the ability to demonstrate that its counter-fraud activities are having the intended impact and are cost-effective. As part of our inquiry into the Department’s 2019–20 Accounts, we recommended that the Department needed to be able to monitor and report on the impact …
Government response. The government published an estimate of £2 billion in savings from counter fraud efforts in the 2021-22 ARA and is committed to working with the NAO to ensure agreement on the framework for the 2022-23 ARA.
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
We asked the Department how long it would be before it could set a target for fraud and error reduction. It told us that it could not say when it would have enough clarity 32 Qq 70–72 33 Committee of Public Accounts, Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2020–21 – …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation, previously given, to set a target and work with the National Audit Office (NAO) to develop commentary, with a target implementation date of Summer 2023, and will keep the Committee up to date …
HM Treasury
24
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
The Department explained that, in order to manage the risk of unintended bias in the use of data analytics to identify fraud, it ensured that there was always meaningful human involvement in decision-making, and that it undertook ‘fairness analysis’ to identify any disproportionate impacts. We asked the Department which groups …
Government response. The government is committed to ensuring that all the right assurances and governance is in place for its data and analytics functions, in relation to its fraud and error response and considering the best method on reporting this information to …
HM Treasury
27
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
In January 2021 the Department launched an exercise to review around 400,000 cases ‘at risk’ of underpayment to confirm the extent of the issue and reimburse affected pensioners. The Department wrote to us in May 2022 explaining that it was on track to conclude the review of the original 400,000 …
Government response. The government agrees and states that it already provides a range of awareness materials to assist those who may fall into the cohorts affected by the State Pension LEAP exercise, including information on Gov.UK and leaflets with annual uprating letters. …
HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
In our January 2022 report we were concerned that the Department had not given people who were worried that they had been underpaid enough information to find out what they should do, and that there was a risk that many would still miss out on money they should receive.55 In …
Government response. The government agrees to work with HMRC to fully evaluate the extent of the HRP underpayment as soon as possible and provide a timetable of when it expects each phase of this process will be completed.
HM Treasury
30
Recommendation
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
The NAO reported that the Department cannot rule out that there may be further groups of pensioners, as yet unidentified, that have been affected by a historic underpayment. It concluded that this was in large part because the Department had not set out plans to revise its control processes for …
Government response. The government agrees and plans to report the total value of arrears payments that arise due to underpayments in its next Annual Report & Accounts, and how it will review individual arrears payments to assess whether they are indicative of …
HM Treasury
31
Conclusion
Twenty-Sixth Report - The Department fo…
Accepted
We have previously concluded that the Department had been relying on a State Pension payment system that is not fit for purpose for decades, and recommended that it consider ways to upgrade its IT systems as a matter of urgency.66 The Department accepted 59 Q 101 60 Committee of Public …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, but disagrees with the overall conclusion, given its previous detailed updates on the State Pensions Legal Entitlement and Administrative Practices exercise (the LEAP exercise) and provides details on the scope of the exercise, progress …
HM Treasury