Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 11
11
When we asked the Department what positive assurance it obtained that the system was working...
Conclusion
When we asked the Department what positive assurance it obtained that the system was working and that it was paying people on time and the right amount, it set out the three quality assurance tiers and that said that its focus was on areas with higher error rates. The Department added that the Department responded to the issue significantly more quickly than previous correction exercises as a result of governance improvements. The Department said that, over time, it hoped to become better at identifying small-scale 16 Q 123 17 Q 3, Letter from Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work & Pensions to the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, dated 15 November 2021. 18 Qq 30–33, 35–39, 84–89 19 C&AG’s Report; para 11 20 C&AG’s Report; paras 2.10, 2.11 21 Q 40 22 Q 2; Letter from Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work & Pensions to the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, dated 15 November 2021. 12 Underpayments of the State Pension errors that may mask more systemic issues and to use more innovative analytical methods coupled with human quality assessment to improve customer experience.23 For instance, in its follow-up letter to us after the evidence session the Department said that it deployed automation of some processes to improve the processing of letters sent out to customers.24 However, the management information is still lacking in areas such as reporting on State Pension enquiries and complaints and the Department acknowledged that it ‘will not eliminate all official error anywhere across the Department’ despite the exercise it is going through’.25 23 Qq 35, 41 24 Q 2; Letter from Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work & Pensions to the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, dated 15 November 2021. 25 Qq 100, 113–117 Underpayments of the State Pension 13 2 State Pension correction exercise
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
2.3 The department has strengthened its assurance methodologies, to ensure that associated sampling is more robust and picks up the widest range of errors possible for correction, using insight to inform organisational learning and continuous improvement plans. 2.4 All other assurance sampling is statistically significant. The department’s assurance was further strengthened in February 2021, and now involves reviewing cases as a whole, rather than just reviewing the change of circumstance processed. Further enhancements include segmenting assurance data that may indicate gaps in the knowledge of agents or other process or system errors that need rectification. 2.5 Part of the department’s risk management strategy is to manage risk not only by understanding errors of large scale but also smaller scale errors which present social consequences to customers. 2.6 A range of data sets will be triangulated to improve understanding of risks and will be reviewed 6-weekly at the department’s Quality Governance Board. The department will be happy to share its Quality Framework improvements with the Committee.