Universal Credit: 'One dole to rule 'em all' on verge of recovery – report

The disastrous £16bn one-dole-to-rule-them-all Universal Credit programme in the UK may be turning a corner, according to a report by think-tank the Institute for Government. The woes of the programme have been long-documented, with the National Audit Office three years ago revealing that the entire multi-billion programme had …

[2460 Something]

If it had been done correctly, like for like, without the bunch of numpties running it into the ground each time it 'could' have been beneficial. As it is the UC has just become another cost PR exercise. The thresholds and withdrawal rates are lower and higher respectively. So when people get moved across to it they will be getting less money. But that's OK because it appeals to their target demographic of voters to stick it to the most vulnerable members of society.

[IHateWearingATie]

Ah I see - it would have been fine if they had got you to do it.

From my knowledge of the scope (and I worked on several DWP systems, but not UC) it didn't matter who was managing it, the scope was always going to be too big and too vast to be successful. I've commented on this before, but in case anyone missed it:

The idea of UC had been hanging around the dept for years before 2011 (I heard about it as a concept, albeit with a different name, in 2007), but subsequent ministers and senior bods had always turned it down as it looked like a disaster waiting to happen, The difference was Ian Duncan Smith was the first one to say yes.

[twilkins]

"subsequent ministers and senior bods had always turned it down as it looked like a disaster waiting to happen, The difference was Ian Duncan Smith was the first one to say yes."

Sounds a lot like Brexit.

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

Hadn't he worked out ideas along those lines in opposition? Was he a useful idiot who said yes to a necessary 20-25 year rationalisation while convincing his political masters it could be done in under five?

_{I increasingly have qualms about how necessary it is. But that's down to (a) screw ups that leave people without all their money instead of one chunk and (b) the ease with which it allows ministers to adjust all benefits.}

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

Could the change in fortunes be in any way related to the change in minster? Inquiringly curious minds want to know.

[Anonymous Curd]

More like the banishment of GDS to the proverbial wilderness.

[Bob Rocket]

'something that is "recognisable" as Universal Credit may well emerge at the other end'

whilst that statement is true

'something that is "recognisable" as a large turd may well emerge at the other end'

is also true (and probably more likely)

[David Lewis 2]

New elReg Metric?

"Some 12 years later we might have a working IT system"

For some definition of "working" of course! What is the official elReg units of "working"?

[Brewster's Angle Grinder]

Re: New elReg Metric?

Femto Universal Credit.

[Rich 11]

Re: New elReg Metric?

Femto Universal Credit.

Also approximately equal to a single Tweet from a gobshite billionaire (the degree of influence is a force multiplier, acting to produce work achieved rather than work done.).

[hammarbtyp]

Hmmm

Ian Duncan smith goes -> Universal Credit improves

Causation or Correlation, you decide

IDS can presently be seen in the farce "Brexit, Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring"

[J P]

Well, that's encouraging then

"The source of may problems has been the absence of a detailed view of how Universal Credit is meant to work" National Audit Office, Universal Credit: Early progress,HC 621, 2013, p. 33

So now that lesson has been learned there won't be any similar problems with HMRC's MTD initiative then. Which is bigger, more complicated, covers more systems and has an even more compressed timeframe.

Oh.

(For those of you not aware, there's a summary of some of the impacts of MTD at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-tax-digital-for-business-an-overview-for-small-businesses-the-self-employed-and-smaller-landlords - basically, HMRC want you to keep your business records in their prescribed format on software you'll have to buy from their approved suppliers, and send them details 5 times a year; basic info if you just want to keep them off your back [but you won't get any benefit from it] or detailed info if you want them to estimate your final tax liability so you can budget for it)

[Loyal Commenter]

Re: Well, that's encouraging then

"The source of may problems has been the absence of a detailed view of how Universal Credit is meant to work"

Replace the words, "Universal Credit" with "Withdrawal from the European Union", and you have the title of the next act in this farce, where we watch those in power slowly steering this country in ever decreasing circles like an bath toy circling the plughole...

[John Smith 19]

"IT-enabled business changes "

"But it's only an IT system" whisper the Oxford PPE grads in the ministers ear.

These would be the types who insist on having their secretaries (because of course they still need them) print off their emails for them.

Truly the blind leading the blind in a coalition of the willing.

The theory sounds excellent.

The implementation the usual clusterf**k of no clear idea from the client being played by the con-tractors for every penny they can get and a few more beside.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "IT-enabled business changes "

The implementation the usual clusterf**k of no clear idea from the client

But have you noticed the trend:

Defence procurement: Clusterf**k; Rail franchising: Clusterf**k; Transport planning: Clusterf**k; Energy policy: Clusterf**k; Housing policy: Clusterf**k; Hand out of framing grants: Clusterf**k; Health service management: Clusterf**k; Foreign aid: Clusterf**k; HS2: Clusterf**k to be.....etc

What this seems to me to be is evidence that government is essentially incompetent in everything it touches. When I started this post I was hypothesising that this was because government couldn't deal with commercial companies, but when you look at the epic policy fails on energy, transport planning, NHS or foreign aid, there's not that much private sector involvement, it's largely insourced and world class clusterf**kery.

Not that government's incompetence should give private contractors the right to shaft the tax payer, but the solution here is for better project management, where a project can't start without a definitive and final specification, that those specs may not be changed for the sort of trivial reasons that current projects usually do. Write all of this in law, with jail sentences for breach of these rules. And then staff up the procurement team with people who are paid as much as the vendor bid teams, and who have the resource to fully understand the bidder's value model and planned margin, so that we don't have the nonsense of accepting lowest bids that cannot ever be profitable without variation. Indeed, in many respects it is EU Public Procurement rules that encourage this nonsense, by failing to understand that the lowest compliant bid is not always, usually, sometimes the best value. This could be a big opportunity of Brexit, but I very much doubt that British politicians and civil servants will see and seize the opportunity to do something directionally similar, but better. After all, it's not their money they waste.

[ecofeco]

Re: "IT-enabled business changes "

The real irony? Computers were made, literally invented for simplifying record keeping, yet the very bureaucracy that relies and insists, upon serious legal penalties, on record keeping, can't seem to master them.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Unrealistic timetables ...

...were blamed for the original scrapping of the scheme"

"Some 12 years later we might have a working IT system"

Is automating a benefit system defined by an existing set of rules really more complex and demanding than cracking the German U-boat code with valves?!

[Will Godfrey]

Re: "Unrealistic timetables ...

Apparently, it is

[Loyal Commenter]

Re: "Unrealistic timetables ...

That entirely depends on your definitions of the words 'defined by an existing set of rules'. You are assuming that those rules are all well defined and that none of them contradict each other for starters.

I think the problem here might be the attempt to project formal logic onto the eldritch abomination that is the benefits system; dreamed up, and reshaped over years, by politicians, a group for whom internal consistency has never been a concept.

[PaulR79]

Still a bad thing

I may finally be close to something resembling 'working' but it's still an incredibly bad thing. How they can make it so you have essentially wait 5 weeks (or is it 6?) before you receive any payment, if you qualify, is beyond me. If you are forced to do one of the many / only available jobs that are for a month or two then you are completely fucked unless you are a master at governing your own finances. Even the JSA 2 weeks is a stretch when companies are quick to smash you in the face for missing payments by a day.

The idea of UC may be sound but the implementation, planning and reasoning for it are all deplorable.

[OzBob]

Surely they have the data already

for who gets what and when and how much? And nobody thought to analyse that set of data and see how complex it actually was?

[Rebcan]

Any body on the sharp end of this system i.e. those trying to make a claim, will be able to tell you that this is a total cock up.

The staff in the job centres and call centres do not understand it and can not explain it to the claimants.

Being unable to access any money most are having to resort to using payday loans etc. , not a good way to go.

Will the government cover the interest costs while they sort out the system? Not a cat in hells chance.

[ecofeco]

16 billion? Cui bono?

This is outright theft. I could take some clever college students and a few experienced programmers and made this work for 10th the price and everyone would have still been paid handsomely.

This was deliberate theft and embezzlement.

[Anonymous Coward]

Agile waterfall in the Cloud

"an unworkable mix of "agile" and "waterfall" project management approaches."

If you hear any of agile, waterfall or cloud in the description of an IT project its generally a sign that the descriptor hasn't a clue what (s)he's on about.

[Anonymous Coward]

£16bn

That would have paid for a number of new industry start-ups and job creation opportunities.

No?

[phuzz]

So, all the money so far has gone to consultancy companies, and none has gone to poor or needy people.

Isn't that the system working as designed?