Recommendations & Conclusions
14 items
1
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
We took evidence from the Department for Work and Pensions (the Department) to follow up on issues arising from our recent scrutiny of a range of topics.1
Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the committee's introductory statement and outlines its ongoing reforms to the Post-16 education and skills system, including the transfer of adult skills and careers responsibility to the DWP, the creation of the Jobs and Careers Service, and the integration of the …
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HM Treasury
6
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department told us that, at one level, machinery of government changes were straightforward because one could announce them; but, at another level, there was a lot of detailed delivery work that needed to happen. It said that it was bringing over officials from the Department for Education into the …
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The Department told us that, at one level, machinery of government changes were straightforward because one could announce them; but, at another level, there was a lot of detailed delivery work that needed to happen. It said that it was bringing over officials from the Department for Education into the Department for Work and Pensions, and the two departments were creating a joint unit to support the Minister for Skills. Budgets would formally transfer at the main estimates for the next financial year, and the Permanent Secretaries for the two departments had shared letters to clarify accounting officer responsibilities while they worked through the detail. The Department noted that a key thing to work out would be how it could ensure that Skills England focused its work on the needs of the economy, and how it could use labour market initiatives to underpin that.12
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges the importance of access to education and skills and has transferred responsibility for adult skills and careers to DWP to create a single government lead. It outlines the plan for the Jobs and Careers Service.
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HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
We asked the Department about the merger of jobcentres with the National Careers Service and specifically about how it would do better at giving advice to young people about what their wishes and skills were best 7 Machinery of Government – Skills, HCWS930, 16 September 2025 8 HM Government, Post-16 …
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We asked the Department about the merger of jobcentres with the National Careers Service and specifically about how it would do better at giving advice to young people about what their wishes and skills were best 7 Machinery of Government – Skills, HCWS930, 16 September 2025 8 HM Government, Post-16 Education and Skills, CP 1412, October 2025, p 6 and 12-13 9 Qq 19, 22 10 Qq 19, 22 11 Q 21 12 Q 20 8 directed towards. The Department said that there would be no change to the current arrangements whereby, for many young people, the first conversation with a careers adviser happens at school at the point where young people make important life choices about what qualifications to do. The changes would be to post-19 support for careers where the Department’s aim would be to enhance and develop the offer and embed it into everything else that is done at a jobcentre.13 The Department said it was excited about the prospects for the new integrated service, which would allow it to take a careers conversation with a customer through to a skills conversation and then through to an employment conversation.14
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and will be bringing together the National Careers Service with Jobcentre Plus from 1 October 2026. As the new service is being developed, the department will look to incorporate information on users’ skills and available provision to signpost …
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HM Treasury
8
Recommendation
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department said that it was in the process of setting up the new jobs and careers service, which would need to be done by October 2026 when the current National Careers Service contracts came to an end. It had taken over the contracts but Ministers had decided to insource …
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The Department said that it was in the process of setting up the new jobs and careers service, which would need to be done by October 2026 when the current National Careers Service contracts came to an end. It had taken over the contracts but Ministers had decided to insource careers advice services from 1 October 2026. We asked the Department if it would make sure it retained in the new organisation the skills contained within the National Careers Service providers. We believe this is very important. The Department told us that insourcing was important so that it could try different things rather than having to negotiate them through a commercial contract. It said it had time to get the new arrangements right, including bringing over talented staff from the existing providers.15 Reduction in work coach support for claimants
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Government response AI summary
The government acknowledges the importance of retaining skills from the National Careers Service providers and has transferred responsibility for adult skills and careers to DWP to create a single government lead. It outlines the plan for the Jobs and Careers Service.
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HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
In June 2025, just before we published our report, the Department wrote to tell us that it had made three of the measures in the framework permanent. Two of these measures involved reducing the frequency of appointments for customers in the Intensive Work Search group. The third measure was shortening …
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In June 2025, just before we published our report, the Department wrote to tell us that it had made three of the measures in the framework permanent. Two of these measures involved reducing the frequency of appointments for customers in the Intensive Work Search group. The third measure was shortening the first meeting claimants have with a work coach—the ‘claimant commitment meeting’ when customers are talked through the requirements of their claims—from 50 to 30 minutes.17
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Government response AI summary
The government will conduct qualitative research to understand the impact of the 30-minute initial claimant commitment meeting on the claimant experience, with findings used in developing the Jobs and Careers Service.
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HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
In September 2025, the Department wrote to us again and acknowledged that it did not hold quantitative evidence on the impact of changing the length of the first meeting claimants have with a work coach. It said that, as this measure was part of the local flexibility framework, many jobcentres …
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In September 2025, the Department wrote to us again and acknowledged that it did not hold quantitative evidence on the impact of changing the length of the first meeting claimants have with a work coach. It said that, as this measure was part of the local flexibility framework, many jobcentres were familiar with the policy and feedback from frontline staff who had previously used the framework suggested that customers could be adequately supported within the reduced timeframe.18 We note, however, that the Department has gathered no feedback on this approach from claimants themselves.
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Government response AI summary
The government will conduct qualitative research to understand the impact of the 30-minute initial claimant commitment meeting on the claimant experience, with findings used in developing the Jobs and Careers Service.
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HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department recognises that significant parts of its services remain largely unmodernised. Its Service Modernisation Programme is an 11-year organisation-wide programme, estimated to cost £312.1 million and running from 2022–23 to 2032–33, which is seeking to deliver benefits for customers, staff and taxpayers. This programme includes plans to upgrade substantial …
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The Department recognises that significant parts of its services remain largely unmodernised. Its Service Modernisation Programme is an 11-year organisation-wide programme, estimated to cost £312.1 million and running from 2022–23 to 2032–33, which is seeking to deliver benefits for customers, staff and taxpayers. This programme includes plans to upgrade substantial parts of the Department’s legacy IT systems.24 Processing Personal Independence Payment claims
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HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
We noted examples of constituents who had waited over a year for their PIP claims to be processed, and that the Department had told a Member’s office that claims would take more than 12 months.28 These delays can cause claimants to get into debt and push them into poverty.29 The …
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We noted examples of constituents who had waited over a year for their PIP claims to be processed, and that the Department had told a Member’s office that claims would take more than 12 months.28 These delays can cause claimants to get into debt and push them into poverty.29 The Department told us that the experiences we described were not showing in its statistics but acknowledged that it was obviously a genuine situation that it needed to address.30
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Government response AI summary
The department has reviewed its timeliness standards, which reflect current policy and drive correct outcomes and will include this in the 2025-26 ARA. The department will however write to the Committee to provide the information available as requested, by the end of March 2026, to …
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HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
As it has done previously, the Department pointed to the work it was doing to transform the PIP service through its Health Transformation Programme. It explained that, as part of this programme, it was testing an online application form which took claimants to the questions that related to their situation, …
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As it has done previously, the Department pointed to the work it was doing to transform the PIP service through its Health Transformation Programme. It explained that, as part of this programme, it was testing an online application form which took claimants to the questions that related to their situation, making it quicker to complete. The Department said it was testing the full online process in only a few postcodes, but in those places it had, on average, reduced the time taken to process claims by 20 days, and enabled it to achieve its target to process 75% of PIP claims in 75 days.31 In 2023, the Department told the previous Committee that it had started to process applications from claimants living in specific postcodes in London and Birmingham and that it intended to process up to 20% of PIP claims using the new online service by 2026.32 However, during our evidence session, two years later, the Department 25 Committee of Public Accounts, DWP Customer Service and Accounts 2023–24, Sixth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 354, 23 January 2025, p 1 26 The Department for Work and Pensions, Annual Report and Accounts 2024–25, HC 995, July 2025, p 72 27 Qq 26-27 28 Qq 25-26 29 Q 30 30 Q 28 31 Qq 29, 40 32 Committee of Public Accounts, Revising health assessments for disability benefits, Third Report of Session 2023–24, HC 79, 29 November 2023, pp 7-8 and 10 13 said only that it believed it could reach the 20% target by 2029, when the programme is due to be completed.33 We think that this is far too long for claimants to have to wait to see an improvement in how their claims are processed.
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Government response AI summary
The department has reviewed its timeliness standards, which reflect current policy and drive correct outcomes and will include this in the 2025-26 ARA. The department will however write to the Committee to provide the information available as requested, by the end of March 2026, to …
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HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department also highlighted that it was trialling the idea of having a named caseworker to support claimants with the PIP application process: helping customers understand the eligibility requirements, talking them through the evidence they needed to provide, acting as a point of contact and explaining the final decision on …
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The Department also highlighted that it was trialling the idea of having a named caseworker to support claimants with the PIP application process: helping customers understand the eligibility requirements, talking them through the evidence they needed to provide, acting as a point of contact and explaining the final decision on their claim. It told us that it has not had an integrated IT system for PIP – each of the different elements have had their own IT, and the outsourced providers have had their IT. However, it was now developing a new IT system that would support the end-to-end process.34 Cyber risks and upgrading the Department’s legacy IT
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Government response AI summary
The department will provide the committee with requested information by the end of March 2026, and is offering opportunities to reduce journey times through service improvements.
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HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
In our May 2025 report on government cyber resilience, we concluded that government had not kept up with the severe and rapidly evolving cyber threat, that there was a longstanding shortage of experienced, technical cyber skills, and that departments had not done enough to prioritise cyber security.35 The Department told …
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In our May 2025 report on government cyber resilience, we concluded that government had not kept up with the severe and rapidly evolving cyber threat, that there was a longstanding shortage of experienced, technical cyber skills, and that departments had not done enough to prioritise cyber security.35 The Department told us that it had identified cyber risk as one of its most significant risks and it was something that its executive team looked at very closely. It stressed that, given the significance of the customer data it had and the nature of the essential services it provided, cyber attack had to be avoided at all costs.36
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Government response AI summary
The Department told us that it had identified cyber risk as one of its most significant risks and it was something that its executive team looked at very closely. It stressed that, given the signif
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HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department told us that it had its own assurance programme based on the world-class National Institute of Standards and Technology assurance programme, and that it also used the GovAssure process which is the government standard for the most critical systems. The Accounting Officer explained that security as whole was …
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The Department told us that it had its own assurance programme based on the world-class National Institute of Standards and Technology assurance programme, and that it also used the GovAssure process which is the government standard for the most critical systems. The Accounting Officer explained that security as whole was overseen on his behalf by the Department’s Finance Director General and by the departmental audit and risk committee. The Department said that it had dedicated staff who were expert in what they did, and this was a larger group of people than it had historically been. It also noted that it was building capability for the whole of government and was the home of the security academy.37 33 Q 40 34 Q 29 35 Committee of Public Accounts, Government cyber resilience, Twenty-Fourth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 643, 9 May 2025, pp 3-4 36 Q 57 37 Q 57 14
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Government response AI summary
The Department told us that it had its own assurance programme based on the world-class National Institute of Standards and Technology assurance programme, and that it also used the GovAssure process which is the government standard for the most critical systems.
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HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department explained that it had a security incident response framework in place that, in the case of a cyber attack, would enable it to keep its services running as much as possible. It told us that its business continuity plan would put in place the most important steps first—getting …
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The Department explained that it had a security incident response framework in place that, in the case of a cyber attack, would enable it to keep its services running as much as possible. It told us that its business continuity plan would put in place the most important steps first—getting money to people—with some of its advisory processes being of lower priority.38
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and describes the department's plan to address the 36 most critical legacy systems, which account for around 65% of the caseload, within the coming Spending Review.
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HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Acknowledged
The Department told us that, if implemented successfully, its plans to upgrade its legacy IT could transform its customer service and productivity, enabling it to provide services where customers could do more for themselves where they are able to, and to take away some of the more administrative tasks that …
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The Department told us that, if implemented successfully, its plans to upgrade its legacy IT could transform its customer service and productivity, enabling it to provide services where customers could do more for themselves where they are able to, and to take away some of the more administrative tasks that staff spent too much time doing to free up their capacity to spend more time serving customers. It said that it had just launched a customer account which would enable citizens to do things across multiple benefits, rather than just one by one.40 However, we have previously noted that major digital transformation programmes have often failed to deliver as intended, with government struggling to modernise a legacy environment at the same time as harbouring a major ambition to exploit opportunities from new technologies.41 38 Qq 62-63 39 Qq 58-59, 68-69 40 Qq 53, 64 41 Committee of Public Accounts, Government’s relationship with digital technology suppliers, Twenty-Seventh Report of Session 2024–25, HC 640, 6 June 2025, p 1 15
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and states that the Service Modernisation Programme is delivering as intended. They outline several achievements and future improvements to the Customer Account.
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HM Treasury