Annual report and financial statements for 2023/24 reveal that the department also boosted its investment in areas such as transformation and resilience, including major programmes to modernise services and infrastructure

The Department for Work and Pensions boosted its spending on digital to a total of about £1bn in the 2023/24 year.

In its recently published annual report and accounts for the 12 months to the end of March, the department revealed that its Digital Group received backing of £996.5m during the period. This compares with £924.2m in the prior year, equating to a rise of £72.3m – or 8%.

The report says that the £1bn invested during the year encompassed “IT contracts and digital services for colleagues and customers”.

The Corporate Transformation operations of the DWP also had a boost in budget during the year, with spending spiking by 14% – from £1.19bn to £1.36bn.

Another tech-focused area to see an increase in investment is Change and Resilience – a category which includes delivery of the Service Modernisation programme, a major digital project intended to “transform customer experience for 20 million people”. The change bracket saw its FY24 budget rise by 10% annually to almost £660m.

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The report claims that, during the year, the department “further developed its learning offer to build colleagues’ digital confidence and capability, embed sustainability and encourage social and self-directed learning”. These efforts were supported by 901 “digital workplace champions” in the DWP’s operations around the country, whose role is to help and encourage colleagues to get the most out of technology.

The annual roundup adds that the department was an enthusiastic participant in a cross-government programme to boost officials’ data skills. More than half of the DWP’s 90,000-strong workforce has now undergone specialist training in this area.

“DWP took a leading role in the implementation of One Big Thing 2023, a civil service-wide learning initiative focused on data,” the report said. “DWP influenced the design and rollout of the learning, and saw the highest engagement levels across government. As a result, 50,000 colleagues now better understand the importance of data, and how the department uses it to make informed decisions, modernise and adapt its services, achieve efficiencies, and deliver excellent digital services.”

The DWP claims that FY24 also saw progress in modernising its delivery of services to support Access to Work, Child Maintenance, and the State Pension.

“The department has continued its work to replace outdated legacy systems with new, digitally-enabled ways of working, supporting productivity improvements and helping to deal with increased demand for DWP services,” the report said.

The department’s overall spending during the year increased by about 5% to £9.59bn, the accounts reveal.