Twenty-Sixth Report - Department of Work and Pensions Accounts 2019-20

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 681 18 November 2020

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 33 items (12 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 33 of 33 classified)

Accepted 22

Accepted in Part 3

Acknowledged 1

Deferred 1

Not Addressed 6

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty sixth report from Session 2019-21 · published 25 Mar 2021

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Recommendations & Conclusions

6 results

4 Recommendation Not Addressed

The Department cannot demonstrate that it is doing everything that is cost- effective to tackle...

Recommendation

The Department cannot demonstrate that it is doing everything that is cost- effective to tackle fraud and error. The National Audit Office’s work in 2019–20 on the Department’s strategy to tackle fraud and error showed that the Department could do … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government response does not address the recommendation to monitor and report on the impact and cost-effectiveness of fraud and error initiatives or potential discrimination from AI/machine learning.

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10 Conclusion Not Addressed

Benefit overpayments are at their highest estimated rates and have risen consistently since 2015–16.

Conclusion

Benefit overpayments are at their highest estimated rates and have risen consistently since 2015–16. Excluding State Pension, the estimated rate of overpayments increased again to 4.8% (£4.5 billion) of estimated benefit expenditure of £93.1 billion for 2019–20, from a restated … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government response does not address this conclusion, instead providing a response to an unrelated recommendation (ID 21815) regarding setting annual targets for fraud and error.

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12 Conclusion Not Addressed

Universal Credit has the highest estimated overpayment rate of all measured benefits—9.4% (£1.7 billion) for...

Conclusion

Universal Credit has the highest estimated overpayment rate of all measured benefits—9.4% (£1.7 billion) for 2019–20—and it has an estimated underpayment rate of 1.1% (£0.2 billion). This is the highest recorded overpayment rate for any benefit other than Tax Credits … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government response addresses a different committee recommendation regarding setting annual fraud and error targets for Universal Credit, rather than the provided conclusion about the current high overpayment rates.

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16 Conclusion Not Addressed

The Department informed us that it has taken steps to mitigate the impact of these...

Conclusion

The Department informed us that it has taken steps to mitigate the impact of these easements. It said it believes the key thing is to have a real-time data feed that enables it to check that the mitigations it has … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government response addresses a different committee recommendation regarding reporting on fraud and error and easement impacts in the Annual Report, rather than the provided conclusion about current departmental monitoring of its Enhanced Checking Service.

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32 Conclusion Not Addressed

The Department reports that it is able to identify claims impacted by its temporary easements...

Conclusion

The Department reports that it is able to identify claims impacted by its temporary easements to controls, and that therefore it can revisit these claims to raise any resulting over (or under) payments that might have occurred; it reports that … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government's response, which is identical to a response to a different recommendation, acknowledges the opportunity to evaluate controls and commits to reporting the impact of the pandemic and easements on Universal Credit losses, but does not specifically address the committee's concerns about acting slowly to identify and correct underpayments or revisiting claims.

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33 Recommendation Not Addressed

In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were...

Recommendation

In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were redeployed, meaning the Department temporarily paused compliance work.69 As it restarts its compliance activity the Department should be aware of the lessons from NAO’s Investigation … Read more In response to COVID-19, many staff within the Department’s Counter Fraud and Compliance Directorate were redeployed, meaning the Department temporarily paused compliance work.69 As it restarts its compliance activity the Department should be aware of the lessons from NAO’s Investigation into overpayments of Carer’s Allowance in 2019. 62 Q 33 63 Committee of Public Accounts, Universal Credit, Session 2017–19, HC 1183, 26 October 2018, recommendations 2 and 3 64 Gov.uk, Universal Credit guidance (eligibility) webpage, https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/eligibility (accessed at 05/10/20) 65 C&AG’s Report, Universal Credit: getting to first payment, Session 2019–21, HC 376, 10 July 2020, pages 13, 29, 30 66 DWP ARAC 2019–20, page 76 67 C&AG’s Report, Investigation into errors in Employment and Support Allowance, Session 2017–19, HC 837, 21 March 2018, pages 6 and 8 68 Official Statistics, January 2020: ESA underpayments: Forecast numbers affected, forecast expenditure and progress on checking, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esa-underpayments-progress-on-checking- january-2020/january-2020-esa-underpayments-forecast-numbers-affected-forecast-expenditure-and-progress- on-checking, (accessed on 15/10/20). 69 DWP ARAC 2019–20, page 193 Department for Work and Pensions Accounts 2019–20 17 This found that the Department’s failure to commit sufficient resources to detecting overpayments and a backlog in referrals led some overpayments to not be detected for years, so that when they were detected, the claimant owed so much that they could not reasonably hope to repay it: for example, at the extreme end of this, 133 individuals owed over £20,000 which will take over 34 years to pay back if it is deducted from their benefits. The NAO also found that even when recovery plans were established, it took a significant period for the backlog to be managed back down to normal levels; in September 2017 the Department introduced its first recovery plan for new Carer’s Allowa Show less

Government Response Summary

The government response does not address the specific recommendation to be aware of lessons from the NAO's Carer's Allowance overpayment investigation; instead, it provides a generic response about evaluating control easements and reporting on pandemic impacts in the Annual Report.

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