Digital version of Universal Credit still pricey, wobbly, failing to deliver – MPs Many Brits are still unable to access the "digital-only" version of Universal Credit, the delayed and much-derided welfare reform intended to roll six benefits into one single payment – according to MPs. The Commons Work and Pensions Committee said the UK government's Department for Work and Pensions has yet to produce a full …
I was on this Beast this morning as my partner is attempting to claim benefit and as they now base benefit on entire income, I had to register as well.
It went relatively well until it came to the ID verification part: the Government has nominated a number of external, familiar organisations who will ask you questions and require documentary info to complete your registration. They also need you to have a debit or credit card so they can "charge a zero-amount to it". Then you get passed back to the Beast.
So it assumes that you have a mobile device that can install apps :-) We told it we had a passport and driving licence and duly entered the info. Then it asked us to install an app that would scan an image and send it to, erm, somebody. Mobile #1 Android version was too old to run the app. The online form said "can't install apps? Borrow someone else's phone" (!) FFS.. so I offered mine, and installed the app.
It said to photograph the passport page and this is where the fun started. With recent passports, the relevent page is covered in a shiny, semi-holographic film that simply cannot be photographed. To make it worse, the passport image had to be lined up in an overlay box, as did the text at the bottom of the page. No, of course it doesn't line up, and 30 attempts later I still couldn't get the required image.
In the end we registered with a different provider and didn't need to scan anything.. The ultimate irony is that once you've scanned everything in (if you can), you have to go the Benefits Office to show them your ID that you just scanned in anyway!
Omnishambles is the only word I could think of and really it doesn't do it justice.
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Require that anybody applying for benefits has an iPhoneX or Samsung Galaxy 999 turbo WRX - then deny them benefits on the grounds that they can afford such a phone
While plausible, the occam Razor points at "Digital Natives" from the Silly Roundabout concocting something based on agile drivel and no hard requirements.
A fool and their money are easily parted!
Is it a surprise that the government gets taken for a ride by the outsourcing Pirates, when they start a project with no idea of what they want and how to achieve it.
I have only seen outsourcing work in organisations that have a robust in house IT team managing it. Without the in house expertise they cant spot the BS and will be ripped of every time!
As this is HMG, they possibly did have an 'in-house' team managing it, but staffed by contractors from somewhere else, lacking the motivation or business experience to point out that there were no sensible requirements, but duty bound to criticise at any solution proposed, adding delay and cost, but not quality (or at least not in terms of achieving a system that works/does anything useful).
If you go back to the original project, there was a pretty solid in house team, led by a contractor with a JFDI attitude. He allowed a major supplier to place resource in key roles. The lead delivery manager - supplier, the lead of the SI team - supplier etc.... So the relationship was skewed from the start. The in house architecture team raised issue after issue but these went through the magic delivery prism that turns reds to amber and ambers to green.
Progress focussed on building disposable wireframes in agile teams with a horrific number of supplier resources supporting civil servants bewildered on their first agile project. The main supplier would not place developers on site so designs were drafted, passed off shore for development and literally never seen again by the teams that designed them, therefore no feedback loop. DWP hired a decent agile consultancy and then ignored them when they pointed out that the approach mandated by the major supplier (the one whose staff were running the show) was doomed to failure. DWP went as far as removing every member of the consultancy who raised this objection from the project.
By the time some proper oversight was applied the project was in the hole for a figure at least 10 times what was reported.
AC cos I was there man.
50%? Why not have two in-house system to solve the problem?
I remember a few years ago one certain government department asked 15 questions and answers when setting it up so if it's anything like that then no wonder people are having trouble.
I really don't get how nearly every company on the planet that needs to verify identity can do it with minimal fuss but the moment government tries it's a complete failure, it's like they couldn't organise a p*ss up in a brewery.
"I really don't get how nearly every company on the planet that needs to verify identity can do it with minimal fuss but the moment government tries it's a complete failure, it's like they couldn't organise a p*ss up in a brewery."
To be fair in this instance the requirements are different. Every company on the planet is only really interested in taking money from you, not giving it to you.
Imagine the Fail headlines the first time someone is shown to have established multiple identities?
Having said that, they seem to have the ID thing cracked in Estonia. Anyone know how that all works?
One of the reasons benefit requirements were traditonally considered different is that people in need of benefit are less likely to have passports, driving licences, bank accounts and many of the other things usually used to establish identity.
I presume, though, that Digital UC requires a bank account of some kind to receive the payment (Giros being so last-century along with the Post Office in which you could cash them) so there has already been some sort of identity verification by the bank. You'd think there'd be some means to take advantage of that.
I'm not a techie but at a rough guess, I'd say the system in Estonia works because that country has a compulsory ID card system (gotta have) that everyone carries with them anyway because they need it so often: -ID, -digital signature, travel (EU), healthcare, electronic banking, use of public transport (ticketing), encrypting mail & voting.
There may even be more functions.
"Every company on the planet is only really interested in taking money from you, not giving it to you."
If you apply for a bank loan, then yes, they will eventually take money from you, however, initially, they will be giving you some money. There is the risk that someone could fraudulently take out a loan in your name, take the money, and leave you with the liability.
This does sometimes happen, but as frequently as happened in the old tax credits system before they took it offline.
Its not the most friendly in the world but it does seem to work decently well and it's called GovermentGatewayID
works perfectly well and robustly enough for dealing with HMRC and that includes functions where they owe you.
Why are they reinventing the wheel, particularity when that already have a wheel that was designed for the purpose?
"assumptions based on insight work into customer journey are not at all aligning with reality".
Assumptions basically mean guessing, insight? What? tea leaves?, runes or tarot?, or did they slip a random gypsy woman a couple of quid for a palm reading?
not aiigning with reality?
I don't suppose so. When has any gov IT managed it, and policy seems to be increasingly modelled after whatever crusade the major gaggles of opportunistic MPs think is going to further their career
"Those suppliers were rewarded handsomely for ultimately pointless design and development work conducted without clear sets of requirements or an overarching objective. Many millions of pounds of public money were wasted."
The court system in California spent $300 million on a supposedly statewide computer system that never worked. A few courts use small pieces of it today, but mostly it was binned.
As to ID problems, we have it here, too. Last year, my wife and I did "e-file" on our income tax return. The fed made us take time off work and report in in person so they could check that we were really us. Although the bank account was the same one we'd used for 10+ years, same address, etc. They said if we didn't come in, no refund. As it was a fairly large refund, we went in. This year, we're mailing a paper return like it was 1950.
Here's the link to a one off DWP committee meeting Feb 2017 Lord Freud questioned on UC and the IT systems early on in the meeting he states clearly 'It was a monumental mistake for (All of) government and the western world to outsource their IT' He also said regarding civil servants is that they have only one way to get a wage rise and that is to be promoted and that there's a two year turnaround of staff - He was asked why ministers continued the rollout of UC knowing it wasn't fit for purpose. Several times I had to rewind parts of it because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Frank Field chaired this meeting but hasn't spoken a word about it in public. http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/6911af5e-eb1c-478e-b3fb-d26b28ab5997
That way if you have never paid in then what you get out is less than those who have, I would also put NHS access under the same umbrella but then again I always thought that having sick people starving on the streets would not be tolerated in the UK but evidence suggest otherwise.
There were no benefits during Dickensian times except from religions and other private bodies and then only to "deserving causes".
So no not a tory, but I do believe that benefits were paid for by UK taxpayers and so giving them away to people who have never paid tax was something that should never have happened.
To me benefits were part of a state welfare insurance scheme every UK worker paid into and if like every other country when you haven't contributed then you pay for the services yourself.
I find it truely offensive to see people who have worked all their lives and paid their taxes thrown out on the street and denied medical treatment and social aid so that people who employ accountants to dodge their contributions can have more money they do not need, as in to be able to live.
I do not expect anyone who uses "...jerk...." as an insult to understand but maybe it is your signature
Obviously the system is working as intended. It was meant to get people into work. Now all they have to do is get proper jobs so they do not have to claim Universal Credit. Excuse me whilst I ignore down votes from Deniers of The Bleeding Obvious.
I can confirm their lack of controls on the firms they outsourced to. About 3 years ago I had the misfortune to accept a contract with one of the large firms mentioned there, working on the DWP account. I was there for about 3 months, and in that time I did a sum total of perhaps 1 days work, because they had no work for us to do. There were 3 others in exactly the same boat. We were required to be there, sitting at our desks, during office hours, couldn't work from home even though the technical capability to do so was there, just in case someone from the client wandered through the office. We were there solely so the firm could bill DWP for 4 extra bodies.
Unfortunately it was a quiet time on the jobs front, otherwise I'd have been out of there within the month. I left as soon as I had another gig lined up to go to, as did the other 3. The agency I was working for asked me if I could recommend people to backfill the empty roles. On my last day on the contract I actually went to the cinema in the middle of the day, something I'd been threatening to do for the last month, and other than the 3 other guys in my situation no-one even noticed.
Posting anon for obvious reasons.
A veritable "dream team" of s**t programme delivery right there.
"and had failed in their professional duty of care to their client."
Are you f**king kidding me?
These are con-tractors. "Duty of care" is an idea from real professions where there are actual legal penalties if you violate it.
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