Download or read book Tackling the Complexity of the Benefits System written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-04-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complexity of the benefit system is a key factor affecting the performance of the Department for Work and Pensions. Although this complexity is often necessary in order to administer the system cost-effectively and protect public funds against abuse, it can also result in high levels of error by staff, confusion for customers and help create a climate where fraud can more easily take place. The Committee's report finds that although the DWP has taken steps to address this problem (for example, in the design of Pension Credit, simplifying claim processes for several benefits and better sharing of information with local authorities), these are rather piecemeal developments and it is difficult to tell whether the system as a whole has become more or less complex as there is currently no objective way of measuring it. Some of the steps taken to simplify processes for customers are a way of managing complexity, rather than eliminating it. Managing complexity requires well-trained staff supported by accessible guidance and assistance and efficient information technology systems, and the DWP should also improve its written communications with customers.
Download or read book Dealing with the Complexity of the Benefits System written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-11-18 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its agencies, are responsible for administering around 40 social security benefits to the value of around £100 billion a year. Many of these benefits are linked together; hence some customers are in receipt of more than one benefit. The need for equity and fairness in interpreting legislation, is a cause of complexity. Incentives (e.g. to work) and rewards (e.g. for an individual's savings) have been built into procedures. Problems are caused by the interface between DWP benefits and tax credits (which are administered by HM Revenue and Customs); and by the constant flow of major and minor legislative and administrative changes. Simplified procedures would enable both staff and customers to understand the system better, and to avoid duplication of effort. There would also be less scope for benefits fraud (estimated at £2.6 billion in 2004-05). This NAO report also highlights the need for improved communication with customers and better use of new technology.
Download or read book Progress in Tackling Benefit Fraud written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benefit fraud is a crime and undermines public confidence in the benefits system. In 2006-07, the Department for Work and Pensions estimated that it spent some £154 million on tackling fraud, identifying £106 million of overpaid benefit, against total benefit expenditure of £120 billion. The Department estimates that fraud fell from £2 billion in 2001-02 to £800 million in 2006-07, which is 0.6% of benefit expenditure. But the Department must do more to reverse the rise in official and customer error. Estimated error rose from £1 billion in 2001-02 to £1.9 billion in 2006-07. Benefit complexity is believed to be a major cause of error. Increasing the volume of pre-payment checks and encouraging customers to receive benefit payments directly into their bank accounts has prevented some fraud. The Department now works closely with the police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and local authorities to prevent, identify and act against fraud. But it could make more effective use of its powers and resources. While the Department successfully prosecutes 90 per cent of the cases it takes to court, the Prosecution Division has lost 17 per cent of its staff since 2003. Debt recovery is an essential part of tackling fraud, yet in 2006-07 the Department only recovered £22 million of fraud debt out of a known fraud debt stock of £339 million. The Department has been slow to improve its management information systems, hampering its ability to measure the cost-effectiveness of counter-fraud activities. It has taken from 2003 until February 2008 to roll out a new national management information system, known as FRAIMS, at a cost of £65 million.
Download or read book Minimising the cost of administrative errors in the benefits system written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-11-25 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2009-10 the Department for Work and Pensions overpaid its customers by an estimated £1.1 billion and made underpayments of £500 million. However, the scale of the challenge faced by the Department should not be underestimated. The benefits system is large, encompassing over 27 different benefits and a total caseload of around 20 million people. In addition, the Department has had to respond to the recent recession in which Jobseekers Allowance caseload almost doubled between 2008 and 2009. The recent announcement of the introduction of Universal Credit is an opportunity to simplify many of the regulations, but such changes will take a long time to implement. In the meantime, the onus remains on the Department to keep the costs of mistakes to a minimum. The Department has demonstrated a clear commitment to reducing administrative error, but there is scope for improvement in the quality of information used to assess where the Department should focus its efforts. Although DWP has initiated an exercise to understand fully the causes of error, this will not be complete until the spring of 2011. There is also scope for further work in collecting and analysing the full costs and benefits of the Department's interventions in order to assess cost effectiveness. The Government announced a new strategy in October 2010 with a greater emphasis on preventing errors from arising and this is now an opportunity for lessons to be learned.
Download or read book Benefits simplification written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Work and Pensions Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benefits Simplification : Seventh report of session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and written Evidence
Download or read book Understanding social security 3e written by Millar, Jane and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political and economic landscape of UK social security provision has changed significantly since the 2008 financial crisis. This fully revised, restructured and updated 3rd edition of a go-to text book covers all the key policy changes and their implications since the elections of 2010 and 2015. With contributions from leading academics in the field this book critically examines the design, entitlement, delivery and impact of current welfare provision. The first half of the book examines social security across the lifecycle from Child Benefit to retirement pensions. The second half focuses on key issues in policy and practice including new topics such as the realities of life on benefits in an era of austerity, and the pros and cons of Universal Basic Income. • Framework supports teachers and students, encouraging analytical thinking of issues and providing pointers to related sources • Authoritative and evidence-based arguments • Clear section and chapter summaries, overviews, questions for discussion, website resources and a bibliography • Includes tables, charts and text boxes for clarity, interest and appeal This book is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Social Policy taking modules on Social Security Policy, Poverty and Inequality, Income Support and Welfare Reform, as well as Social Work students and those on other Social Science degree programmes.
Download or read book Getting Welfare Right written by Great Britain. Department for Work and Pensions and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Progress on Tackling Pensioner Poverty written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-07-21 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2002 report Tackling pensioner poverty: encouraging take-up of entitlements (ISBN 0102919577) examined efforts by the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the take-up of benefits by pensioners. It was followed by a report from the Committee of Public Accounts (ISBN 0215009347) that made a number of recommendations. This report looks at the changes the Department have made against those recommendations and the challenges that remain. The overall conclusion is that the Pension Service has made substantial progress in helping pensioners secure their entitlements, using new and thought through approaches. However there is more to be done. This report is accompanied by a technical report that describes the methodology and findings in greater detail.
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 Tackling Complexity written by Gilbert Probst and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our socio-economic systems continue to grow and evolve. We need to acknowledge that, consequently, our decisions often fail – they are ineffective and create unexpected side effects. The speed of execution is increasing constantly and markets and systems respond almost immediately, making decision-making challenging. There is little or no room for failure.This important new book analyses real world strategy and policy challenges, addressing the interconnectedness of the markets/systems we live in. It provides a step-by-step approach using systems thinking to solve complex problems in socio-political as well as business environment. It proposes a technique with which to better understand the problems and the context in which they arise, and tools to directly inform each step of the decision-making process. The book explores the main innovation that systemic thinking introduces – the emphasis on defining the problem creating system, which is made up of interacting parts, rather than prioritizing events that need immediate fixing.The case studies, examples and the approach proposed can be used to better understand reality and its complexity, and to integrate stakeholders for a better solution. Practically, it can be used to identify problems, analyse their boundaries, design interventions, forecast and measure their expected impacts, implement them and monitor and evaluate their success/failure. The book touches upon global issues related to policy making and strategic management, as well as issues related to sustainable development for both the public and private sector.
Download or read book Understanding and Managing the Complexity of Healthcare written by William B. Rouse and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-07-03 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument that understanding healthcare delivery as a complex adaptive system will help us design a system that yields better health outcomes. Breakthroughs in medical science, innovations in medical technologies, and improvements in clinical practices occur today at an increasingly rapid rate. Yet because of a fragmented healthcare delivery system, many Americans are unable to benefit from these developments. How can we design a system that can provide high-quality, affordable healthcare for everyone? In this book, William Rouse and Nicoleta Serban introduce concepts, principles, models, and methods for understanding, and improving, healthcare delivery. Approaching the topic from the perspectives of engineering and statistics, they argue that understanding healthcare delivery as a complex adaptive system will help us design a system that is more efficient, effective, and equitable. The authors use multilevel simulation models as a quantitative tool for evaluating alternate ways of organizing healthcare delivery. They employ this approach, for example, in their discussions of affordability, a prevention and wellness program, chronic disease management, and primary care accessibility for children in the Medicaid program. They also consider possible benefits from a range of technologies, including electronic health records and telemedicine; data mining as an alternative to randomized trials; conceptual and analytical methodologies that address the complexity of the healthcare system; and how these principles, models, and methods can enable transformational change.
Download or read book Reporting Changes in Circumstances written by Jacqueline Davidson and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review written by Colin Talbot and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-15 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Gordon Brown launches the fifth Comprehensive Spending Review since New Labour came to power in 1997, we might ask ourselves why all the debate about priorities and policies has remained firmly under wraps in the Whitehall village. It was, after all, Brown himself who announced that the Comprehensive Spending Review would be carried out through "national debate" rather than the secretive process which has come to decide our national priorities. In this, the first "alternative" spending review to be published through the Herbert Simon Institute at the University of Manchester, the editors aim to draw back the veil of secrecy and let the real debate on the long-term trends and challenges that will shape the next decade begin. Identifying the reforms and investments needed to meet long-term challenges across government departments, a team of distinguished academics examine the spending issues and constraints facing public services, the policy and delivery challenges across government and look at how public spending reforms have fared so far. A vital source for those wishing to make the spending review process more open, the Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 is essential reading for anyone interested in public administration and public policy.
Download or read book Building Britain s Recovery written by Great Britain. Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This White Paper sets out proposals to tackle the effects of the recession and to get back to full employment. Its aims are to give young people a chance to a better start to their working lives and to help more people back to work and make sure they are better off in work, to keep them in work and to build a fair and family-friendly labour market
Download or read book Understanding Social Security Second Edition written by Jane Millar and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2009-02-02 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition of this text, Understanding Social Security, gives readers the information and analytical tools to make sense of policy developments and reforms and to evaluate options for the future. The book provides a critical examination of social security policy and practice and is essential reading for students of social policy, social work and sociology, as well as policy makers and practitioners in the fields of social security, welfare-to-work, employment, anti-poverty strategies and welfare rights.
Download or read book Universal credit written by Great Britain: Department for Work and Pensions and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This white paper sets out the Government's plans to introduce legislation to reform the welfare system by creating a new universal credit. This universal credit will radically simplify the system to make work pay and combat worklessness and poverty. The consultation document (Cm. 7913, ISBN 9780101791328) spelt out the issues and the consultation responses (Cm. 7971, ISBN 9780101797122), publishing simultaneously with this paper, broadly welcomed the proposals that were put forward. Universal credit is an integrated working-age credit that will provide a basic allowance with additional elements for children, disability, housing and caring. It will support people both in and out of work replacing working tax credit, child tax credit, housing benefit, income support, income-based jobseeker's allowance and income related employment and support allowance. The universal credit will improve financial work incentives by ensuring that support reduction is tapered at a consistent and managed rate. It will also be backed up by a strong system of conditionality. As a simpler system managed by one department it will reduce the scope for costly errors and fraud. The universal credit will not replace: contributory jobseeker's allowance & contributory employment and support allowance which will continue aligned to earnings; disability living allowance; child benefit; and bereavement benefits, statutory sick pay, statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance and industrial injuries disablement benefit
Download or read book Key Concepts in Social Work Practice written by Aidan Worsley and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a quick and accessible reference guide to the key concepts that social work students and professionals need to understand to be effective. The authors place practice at the centre of the text, and include a host of case examples to bring the concepts to life. Examining the essential topics of the social work curriculum, the concepts covered relate to practice, theory, policy and personal challenges. Further reading is included in each entry, so that the reader can explore what they have learned in more detail. This book will be an invaluable resource for social work students during their studies and on their practice placement. It will also be useful for qualified social workers, who want to continue their professional education.
