DWP cancels IT processing system

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has cancelled a £139m benefits processing system to accommodate changes to benefits structures.

The Benefits Processing Replacement Programme, being delivered by IBM, was set up in 2004 to streamline the IT systems used by Jobcentre Plus and the Disability and Carers Service.

But a combination of the introduction of the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and issues with the process underpinning the project have led to its cancellation before it advanced beyond the development stage.

‘It was clear the programme was not working quite as well as we would like in process terms. The welfare reforms also meant we wanted to refocus,’ said a DWP spokesman.

The department says that some elements of the development will still be used.

‘The original programme has been closed, but we are taking forward some of the individual projects within it in relation to the ESA,’ said the spokesman.

‘It is not the case that all the work that has been done is being thrown in the bin. Large chunks of it will still be taken forward,’ he said.

The department has endured a patchy record of recent IT implementations.

Problems with the Customer Management System at Jobcentre Plus left some new benefits claimants waiting two months for payments to start. And a consolidation programme in the DWP’s debt recovery arm has led to backlogs of more than half a million cases.

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