Department’s annual accounts cite examples of beneficial cooperation on implementation of new tools, in addition to work to support the creation of an updated Whitehall vision for AI and tech
The Department for Work and Pensions has shed light on recent efforts to collaborate more closely with the Government Digital Service, including working together on rolling out the new GOV.UK One Login technology, as well as shaping the pending government-wide digital strategy.
The DWP’s recently published annual report for the 12 months to 31 March 2025 reveals that, in November of last year, the department began the process of implementing One Login – the new government-wide sign-in system, intended to be used across all departments and services.
With a user base of about 23 million people, the DWP is likely to have a major impact on the adoption One Login across the UK citizenry. The system is understood to already have about 12 million users, with GDS anticipating that a large part of the population will sign up over the next year or so.
The DWP’s deployment began by incorporating One Login into its service for those reimbursing government for benefit overpayments – for whom the sign-in platform “provides an improved experience for people with a debt to repay”, according to the DWP report.
“This is a great example of collaboration with GDS,” the document adds. “We have rigorously tested and worked through technical challenges in how we safely integrate our ‘Repay and Manage Benefit Monies You Owe’ digital self-service tool with One Login. In November 2024, this became our first service to onboard to the platform, and our solution caters for new users, those with an existing DWP Identity Credential and those who have already set up a One Login Identity via another government department.”
The annual round-up says that One Login represents “a simple, joined-up and personalised experience of government for everyone”, and that the technology is expected to deliver significant benefits in the months and years ahead.
“It is a centralised identity solution, streamlining entry to a wide range of government digital services,” the report says. “It supports our agenda to prevent fraud and error as through this there are reduced identification failures alongside enhanced security. It does this by allowing users to verify their identity and then subsequently sign in and manage multiple public utilities online through a single-entry point.”
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As well as supporting departments with their implementation of One Login, GDS is also currently leading work to deliver a new government-wide digital and data strategy – with the previous three-year plan having reached its conclusion in March.
The DWP report indicates that the welfare department has also been working closely with the digital unit to inform the content of the new strategy – particularly in the area of data.
“Throughout 2024-25, we focused on delivering our multi-faceted data strategy,” the document adds. “We have started to help shape digital government reform by collaborating with the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology on development of the ‘Government Digital and AI roadmap’, DSIT’s plan for digital reform, which aims to join up services, harness the power of AI and strengthen and extend our digital and data public infrastructure.”
The review of the year outlines how the DWP is already preparing its internal infrastructure for the rollout of the new government-wide digital plan – which the department hopes will align with and amplify its ambitions to improve its use of information.
“To set the foundations for delivery of this strategy, we completed a multi-year upgrade of our data warehouse to a new, supportable infrastructure of over 400 servers that provides improved security and resilience for the data used across DWP, other government departments and private sector partners,” the report says. “This provides a stable foundation to build our next generation data platforms to better use data in decision-making and our services.”
It adds: “This year we created a central data hub to support the department in meeting our data demands and ensuring business areas can obtain data. This gives colleagues more flexibility in developing their own insights and data products. We delivered new data sets and extended the use of existing data to meet critical user needs, including ministerial requirements. We have expanded the range of data sets being regularly shared between departments under updated data sharing agreements.”
