Today’s report from the WPSC says DWP must “prove it is up to the
job” before a single claimant is transferred onto Universal
Credit through managed migration. The Committee says the
Department for Work and Pensions “should immediately set tests of
operational readiness” based on those recommended by its own
expert advisory council, the Social Security Advisory Committee
(SSAC) and the NAO’s recommendations, and ensure it is meeting
those tests before it begins even the pilot phase of managed
migration. The Department has provided no convincing reason
why it won’t accept these expert recommendations. The Chair notes
today that it will make no difference to the person who endures
hardship or destitution, because of operational failures at DWP,
whether that occurs during a testing phase or the real thing.
Rt Hon MP, Chair of the Committee,
said: “DWP is still talking semantics: we are
talking about people. Six months after we started pressing them
on the next potential UC disaster on the horizon, the Department
is yet to prove it’s up to the job of so-called “managed
migration”. Anyone who sees their income slashed or their
circumstances and life chances reduced, or any of the other
messes UC is getting people across this land into, will find no
comfort in learning it didn’t happen on purpose.
“Does DWP want to explain to them it didn’t bother to find
out how they might be affected? Will it be a comfort to learn DWP
did take a look at that, but didn’t bother to apply its findings?
‘Test and learn’ must mean just that: DWP should not move one
person onto UC until it does test, and does learn, and proves it
is ready to safely do so.”
These pilot readiness tests would be separate from 'go to scale'
readiness tests which must also be put in place, and met, and the
Committee simply does not accept the Department's argument that
its, the NAO’s and SSAC's recommendations now have any "less
resonance" than when they were first framed, simply because it
has finally conceded to conducting a pilot. If the Department is
confident that UC is operationally ready to begin the managed
migration pilot, there is no explanation for not setting and
meeting the tests to demonstrate this.
The Department should also publish the results of the tests so
that it is also clear to the Committee, the SSAC, other
stakeholders and – crucially - claimants, that the Department is
capable and ready to begin this process: without putting any
claimants at risk of what the Committee has previously described
as the “unholy trinity” of debt, hunger and homelessness that has
followed in the wake of Universal Credit as it rolled out across
the country so far.
The Committee’s report shows that three sets of
tests of readiness for managed migration are
needed:
1) Operational tests of readiness are necessary before starting
the pilot to make sure that UC is
operating as it should for
claimants.
2) Provisional tests of readiness for managed migration ‘at
scale’ are necessary to make sure that the Department collect the
data they need during the pilot.
3)Final tests of readiness are necessary to
know if the Department is ready to begin managed migration
at scale.
The Department should adopt, as a minimum, the tests the
Committee outlines as provisional tests of
readiness for managed migration 'at
scale', and collect the data to apply these during the pilot.
The Department should publish both the provisional and
final tests and report the results to Parliament. These tests
cover:
- payment
timeliness
- Work
Coach/case manager performance
- systems
performance
- cost per
UC claim
- customer
satisfaction
- claimant
financial duress
- claimant
dropout
- indicators
relating to vulnerable claimants and
the financial impact on third parties
