An influential group of parliamentarians has welcomed transformation and upgrade ambitions set out by the benefits department, but is now asking for more specific targets and timelines to be provided
A parliamentary committee has sought additional reassurances on “highly challenging” plans to tackle legacy IT set out by the Department for Work and Pensions.
In a newly published follow-up report, the Public Accounts Committee has rounded up its findings related to “issues arising from our recent inquiries into jobcentres, DWP customer service and government cyber resilience”. A key part of the backdrop to the report is the department’s ongoing work to establish government’s new Jobs and Careers service by merging the current National Careers Service run by the Department for Education with the benefits and support provided via the DWP’s network of 646 Jobcentres, as well as online tools such as the GOV.UK Find a job service.
Having taken evidence from the DWP and other stakeholders, PAC stated that “part of the answer to transforming customer service lies in the department upgrading its legacy IT systems over the next three years”.
MPs “welcome… ambitious plans” to do so, including a commitment from the DWP to “reduce the overall risk from its legacy IT systems by 58%” by 2029. As part of this mitigation, “the 36 highest-risk systems [are] being addressed this year”, with “specific funding in the Spending Review for both [the DWP’s] increase in cybersecurity and its ‘legacy tech debt’ programme”.
While supporting the intent of the DWP’s legacy remediation initiative, MPs said that “we are concerned that the department may not be able to deliver on schedule, and that unacceptably poor service levels could continue for some time”.
“We also welcome the department’s reassurances that it is taking cyber security seriously and acting to mitigate the key risks that customer data is lost or services are disrupted,” the report added. “However, there is more to do and the department needs to remain vigilant of risks as they evolve.”
The poor service delivery cited by PAC is especially evident for “claimants of disability benefits, [who are] receiving a particularly poor service”
“This continues to be the case, with only 51% of new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims processed within 75 working days in 2024–25, against the department’s target of 75%,” the report said. “Some people are waiting over a year to have their claims processed and the department does not seem to have a plan for reducing processing times in the short term.”
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Technology upgrades are a key part of the DWP’s improvement strategy, with the department advising MPs “that, if implemented successfully, its plans to upgrade its legacy IT could transform its customer service and productivity” .
These service enhancements will be achieved by “enabling [the DWP] to provide services where customers could do more for themselves where they are able to, and to take away some of the more administrative tasks that staff spent too much time doing to free up their capacity to spend more time serving customers”.
Work to remediate ageing systems will be accompanied by wider transformation, including a significant project – embarked upon in late 2023 – to create a single unified service for accessing a range of benefits. This service is now in pilot phase, the PAC report reveals.
MPs added: “However, we have previously noted that major digital transformation programmes have often failed to deliver as intended, with government struggling to modernise a legacy environment at the same time as harbouring a major ambition to exploit opportunities from new technologies.”
In its recommendations for the DWP, the committee asked that the department provides “more information about its plans for reducing the risk from legacy IT systems over the next three years, including milestones for replacing key systems, and the changes its customers can expect as a result”.
Also requested is a detailed “timetable for rolling out its pilot to enable citizens to do things across multiple benefits, rather than just one by one, and how long it will take to evaluate this pilot”.
