Download or read book National Audit Office Universal Credit Early Progress HC 621 written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report concludes that the Department for Work and Pensions has not achieved value for money in its early implementation of Universal Credit. The Department was overly ambitious in both the timetable and scope of the programme, took risks to try to meet the short timescale and used a new project management approach which it had never before used on a programme of this size and complexity. It was unable to explain how it originally decided on its ambitious plans or evaluated their feasibility. Nor did it have any adequate measures of progress. Over 70 per cent of the £425 million spent to date has been on IT systems, and £34 million of its new IT systems has been written off. The existing systems offer limited functionality - the current IT system lacks a component to identify potentially fraudulent claims so that the Department has to rely on multiple manual checks on claims and payments. Problems with the IT system have delayed national roll-out of the programme, which will reduce the expected benefits of reform and - if the 2017 completion date remains - increase risks by requiring the rapid migration of a large volume of claimants. The source of many problems has been the absence of a detailed view of how Universal Credit is meant to work. In addition, poor control and decision-making undermined confidence in the programme and contributed to a lack of progress. The Department has particularly lacked IT expertise and experienced frequent changes in senior management.
Download or read book Universal Credit written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Universal Credit Implementation Monitoring DWP s Performance in 1012 13 HC 1209 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2014-04-09 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There remains worrying uncertainty about the new Universal Credit (UC) IT system. This includes how it will work, how much it will cost, and who will develop it. National roll-out of UC was due to begin in October 2013. But problems with IT systems meant that major changes to the implementation timetable were made in July and then again in December 2013. Currently, UC claims are still limited to 10 Pathfinder Jobcentres. New claims are not expected to be extended to the whole of Great Britain until 2016; and the bulk of existing claimants will not move over to UC until 2016-17. Only 4,280 people were claiming Universal Credit by December 2013 and the majority of these claims were of the simplest nature. By comparison, in the same month, 1.22 million people were claiming Jobseekers Allowance. The DWP is developing a new 'end-state solution' for UC IT which will eventually replace the IT system currently in use in the UC Pathfinders. This is costing £25-32 million to develop up to November 2014, with no indication of how much more it will cost in the long-term. The Government has hampered the Committee's scrutiny of UC implementation by not providing accurate, timely and detailed information. And there is a lack of detail on how support for vulnerable people being provided in partnership with local authorities, housing providers and the voluntary sector will operate. Delays to UC implementation mean that local authorities will now administer housing benefit for much longer than anticipated.
Download or read book National Audit Office Criminal Justice System Confiscation Orders HC 738 written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Government has no overall coherent strategy for confiscation orders and this fundamentally undermines the process for confiscating assets. In 2012-13, 673,000 offenders were convicted of a crime, many of which had a financial element, yet only 6,400 confiscation orders were set. The annual amount of fraud perpetrated by criminals in England and Wales has been estimated by the National Fraud Authority as some £52 billion. On this basis, it has been further estimated that, out of every £100 generated by the criminal economy, £99.65 was kept by the perpetrators. Without the government knowing what constitutes the overall success of its policy, the bodies involved have no way of knowing which criminals or court cases should be prioritized for confiscation activity. Action was not taken early enough in many cases and this, together with out-of-date ICT systems, data errors and poor joint working, hampers the efficiency and effectiveness of enforcing confiscation orders. Throughout the criminal justice system, there is insufficient awareness of the proceeds of crime and its potential impact. Confiscation orders have a low profile within law enforcement agencies, with low awareness of financial legislation outside specialist teams. This results in many cases not being considered for confiscation. Owing to a lack of data and agreed success criteria, it is impossible to make meaningful cost-benefit assessments of the enforcement of different orders. Where confiscation orders are made and not paid, the main sanctions do not work. The Courts and Tribunals Service found that in 2012, only two per cent of offenders paid in full once the sentence was imposed.
Download or read book Transfer State written by Peter Sloman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of a guaranteed minimum income has been central to British social policy debates for more than a century. Since the First World War, a variety of market economists, radical activists, and social reformers have emphasized the possibility of tackling poverty through direct cash transfers between the state and its citizens. As manufacturing employment has declined and wage inequality has grown since the 1970s, cash benefits and tax credits have become an important source of income for millions of working-age households, including many low-paid workers with children. The nature and purpose of these transfer payments, however, remain highly contested. Conservative and New Labour governments have used in-work benefits and conditionality requirements to 'activate' the unemployed and reinforce the incentives to take low-paid work - an approach which has reached its apogee in Universal Credit. By contrast, a growing number of campaigners have argued that the challenge of providing economic security in an age of automation would be better met by paying a Universal Basic Income to all citizens. Transfer State provides the first detailed history of guaranteed income proposals in modern Britain, which brings together intellectual history and archival research to show how the pursuit of an integrated tax and benefit system has shaped UK public policy since 1918. The result is a major new analysis of the role of cash transfers in the British welfare state which sets Universal Credit in a historical perspective and examines the cultural and political barriers to a Universal Basic Income.
Download or read book House of Commons Liaison Committee Civil Service Lacking Capacity HC 884 written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Liaison Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-12 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Public service contracts with the private sector need to deliver good quality services and value-for-money for the taxpayer. Select Committees scrutinising the work of departments across Government have found that, on too many occasions, the Civil Service has failed to design effective contracts or to monitor contracts adequately. This report has collated this evidence and demonstrated that there are systemic failings in Civil Service contract management. We have raised specific concerns about the paucity of commercial skills, and officials feeling unable to speak truth to power. The Committee therefore supports the establishment of a Parliamentary Commission on the Civil Service to examine the capacity, skills and operation of Government departments. The contracts issue demonstrates how significantly the role of the Civil Service has changed since the Northcote-Trevelyan Report set out the principles on which it should operate. A coherent analysis of the state of the Civil Service, and the requirements placed upon it, would help to improve governance across Whitehall, and help to eliminate the contract-management failures seen in recent years
Download or read book The Conservative Liberal Coalition written by M. Beech and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-08 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a unique full term analysis of the Cameron-Clegg Government. From austerity to gay marriage, the Scottish referendum to combating IS, it brings together expert academic voices to provide rigorous yet readable insights on the key areas of government politics and the debates which will shape the 2015 general election.
Download or read book Social Security and Wage Poverty written by Chris Grover and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to examine debates about, and the practice of, state supplementing of wages. It charts the historical development of such policies from prohibition in the 1830s and how opposition to it was overcome in the 1970s, thereby allowing the increasing supplementation of the wages of poorly paid working people.
Download or read book Divisive integration The triumph of failed ideas in Europe revisited written by Steffen Lehndorff and published by ETUI. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a follow-up to the ETUI 2012 volume 'The triumph of failed ideas'. The focus of the book is the weight attributed to the different economic and social development paths in ten individual EU countries, and their interaction with the austerity regime established at EU level which in fact is deepening the crisis rather than paving ways out of it. The most dangerous implication of this policy approach is, according to this study, that it is driving countries apart - misleadingly in the name of 'Europe', hence the title of the book 'divisive integration'. The main message of the book is that a gradual recovery is possible only if there is a change of course in individual countries that then triggers reactions in the policies of other countries and perturbations at the EU level. However, these changes in individual countries is no longer feasible without a green light or at least toleration from the level of the European institutions.
Download or read book Families and Poverty written by Daly, Mary and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2015-02-25 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent radical cutbacks of the welfare state in the United Kingdom have kept poverty and income management at the heart of intellectual, public, and policy discourse. This innovative book adds to that conversation, taking as its focus the role and significance of family in the context of poverty and low-income conditions. Based on a micro-level study carried out in 2011 and 2012 with fifty-one families in Northern Ireland, it draws from fresh empirical evidence to offer a new theorization of the relationship between family life and poverty. Different chapters explore such topics as parenting, the management of money, family support, and local engagement. Together, they detail the practices of constructing and managing family life and relationships in circumstances of poverty, making this book of interest to a wide readership including policy makers.
Download or read book Law in a Complex State written by Neville Harris and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-07-18 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approximately half of the total UK population are in receipt of one or more welfare benefits, giving rise to the largest single area of government expenditure. The law and structures of social security are highly complex, made more so by constant adjustments as government pursues its often conflicting economic, political and social policy objectives. This complexity is highly problematic. It contributes to errors in decision-making and to increased administrative costs and is seen as disempowering for citizens, thereby weakening enjoyment of a key social right. Current and previous administrations have committed to simplifying the benefits system. It is a specific objective of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, which provides for the introduction of Universal Credit in place of diverse benefits. However, it is unclear whether the reformed system will be either less complex legally or more accessible for citizens. This book seeks to explain how and why complexity in the modern welfare system has grown; to identify the different ways in which legal and associated administrative arrangements are classifiable as 'complex'; to discuss the effects of complexity on the system's administration and its wider implications for rights and the citizen-state relationship; and to consider the role that law can play in the simplification of schemes of welfare. While primarily focused on the UK welfare system it also provides analysis of relevant policies and experience in various other states.
Download or read book Clear blue water written by Page, Robert M. and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2016-06-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Has the modern Conservative Party developed a distinctive approach to the post-war welfare state? In exploring this question, this accessible book takes an authoritative look at Conservative Party policy and practice in the modern era. The book takes as its main starting point the progressive One Nation Conservative (1950-64) perspective, which endeavoured to embrace those features of the welfare state deemed compatible with the party’s underlying 'philosophy'. Attention then shifts to the neo-liberal Conservatives (1974-97), who sought to reverse the forward march of the welfare state on the grounds of its 'harmful’ economic and social effects. Finally, David Cameron’s (2005-present day) 'progressive’ neo-liberal Conservative welfare state strategy is put under the spotlight. The book’s time-defined content and broad historical thread make it a valuable resource for academics and students in social policy and politics as well as social history.
Download or read book The Stationery Office Annual Catalogue written by Stationery Office (Great Britain) and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Parliamentary Debates Hansard written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shock Waves written by Stephane Hallegatte and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a “win-win†? situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.
Download or read book Assurance for major projects written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-05-02 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This National Audit Office report is on assurance for major government projects, such as the introduction of large IT systems, the construction of ships and helicopters and major changes to how services are delivered. There are 205 projects in the Government Major Project Portfolio, with a combined whole-life cost of £376 billion, and annual cost of £14.6 billion. Thirty nine of those projects have a delivery confidence rating of 'red' or 'amber/red'. The report supports the changes that government has made to the central assurance system for such projects - in particular, the launch of the Major Projects Authority - and finds that they have resulted in some significant impacts. However, the system is not yet 'built to last'. Processes need to be formalised, and the Authority, HM Treasury and departments need to co-operate more if these improvements are to continue. Transparent reporting of project data would also create a more effective and enduring system. An effective central system that gives assurance over project progress is critical for ensuring successful outcomes. Capacity constraints have had an impact on the effectiveness of the assurance system. The Authority is reporting on 160 more projects as part of the portfolio and carrying out more in-depth assurance work, but has 40 per cent fewer staff than the body it replaced. As a result, processes for sharing project lessons and for continuously improving the system remain informal, and there is overdependence on key individuals in the system.
Download or read book Managing Risk Reduction at Sellafield written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-11-07 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A report today by the National Audit Office highlights the considerable challenge faced by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in taking forward the clean-up of Sellafield, the UK's largest and most hazardous nuclear site. To date the performance of some of the major projects at Sellafield has been poor. The Authority inherited a legacy of poor planning and neglect over several decades when it took ownership of Sellafield in April 2005. The Authority achieved an important milestone in May 2011 when it approved a more robust lifetime plan for the clean-up of Sellafield site by 2120. The improved lifetime plan contributed to an increase in the Authority's provision for decommissioning the site to £67 billion (undiscounted) as at March 2012, up from £47 billion as at March 2009. Significant uncertainties and scheduling risks remain, which the authority is working to understand and address. For example, there is considerable uncertainty over the time required and cost of completing facilities to treat and store highly radioactive material held in deteriorating legacy ponds and silos. Today's report concluded that it is too early to judge whether the appointment of Nuclear Management Partners Limited as the parent body of Sellafield is delivering value for money.
