Benefits errors blamed on poor reorganisation

PAC says £1.5bn lost to official mistakes

Wrongly calculated benefits payments have increased significantly because of badly managed organisational and technology changes, according to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Although the amount lost to fraud has decreased, staff errors accounted for £1.5bn in benefits overpayments last year, says a PAC report published this week.

The reorganisation to create Jobcentre Plus, and the problematic customer management system (CMS2) that was introduced as part of the change, have caused the problems.

Computing has reported extensively on problems with CMS2 and the delays these have caused to new benefits payments.

‘The recent major reorganisation to form Jobcentre Plus and the Pension Service led to an increase in the level of errors by officials, due to staff moving into unfamiliar roles and the introduction of new methods of working and IT systems,’ says the PAC report.

The fall-out from troubled technology implementation also continues at the Inland Revenue.

The National Audit Office has qualified the department’s accounts for the third year running, because of continued confusion over the £2.2bn of overpayments made when the Tax Credits system was introduced in 2003.