Benefits department has put in a place an agreement with a tech supplier to deliver software tools, as part of a wider suite of measures which includes an internal algorithm
The Department for Work and Pensions has awarded a multimillion-pound contract for the provision of IT security and anti-fraud technology to help protect its administration of Universal Credit.
On 31 January, the DWP entered into an initial one-year engagement with IT reseller Softcat. The deal, which is valued at £5.9m, is intended to address a requirement for “data analytics protective monitoring and SIEM” (security information and event management services, according to a newly published commercial notice.
The document indicates that the software platforms provided by the supplier will help support departmental officials in protecting the delivery of UC from fraud and other threats.
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“The platform provides security monitoring and fraud prevention with the Security and Data Protection team, fraud prevention and IT operations within Universal Credit; alongside IT operational visibility across a host of digital support pillars,” the contract notice adds.
The anti-fraud technology measures embedded in the Universal Credit system have come under scrutiny recently after figures revealed, for the first time, that a controversial algorithm first deployed in 2021 to assess claims for advance payments has delivered savings of less than £5m over the past three years.
The DWP’s own assessment, meanwhile, reveals that the tool requires retraining as it “is not working as effectively as we would expect”, and is disproportionately flagging as high-risk applications by overseas claimants. The department has also freshly released operational details which – although finally made public after years of campaigning – have been heavily redacted in areas related to data collection, processing and sharing.
