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DWP Government Major Project Portfolio data, September 2014 (CSV)

Updated 25 June 2015
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Project name Automatic Enrolment Programme Child Maintenance Group Change Conditionality Package Estates Programme Fit for Work (previously called Health and Work Service) Fraud, Error and Debt Programme Help to Work Package IT Transformation Programme New State Pension Project Personal Independence Payment Programme Universal Credit
Department DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP DWP
MPA RAG rating (A Delivery Confidence Assessment of the project at a fixed point in time, using a five-point scale, Red – Amber/Red – Amber – Amber/Green – Green; definitions in the MPA Annual Report) Amber Amber/ Green Amber Amber/ Green Amber Amber Amber Amber/Red Amber Amber/Red Amber/Red
Description / Aims (From GMPP data) The Automatic Enrolment Programme was established to implement the Government’s workplace pension reforms. The overarching aim of the reforms is to get more people saving more for their retirement. The Programme ‘went live’ in October 2012, delivering: 1) Automatic enrolment - a new duty on employers to automatically enrol their eligible workers into a qualifying workplace pension scheme; to increase the incentive to remain saving in a pension scheme there is a mandatory employer contribution. 2) The National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) - offers low cost pension provision to individuals on low to moderate earnings and their employers. NEST has a public service obligation to accept any employer who wishes to use it to meet their employer duty. 3) An employer compliance regime - run by the Pension Regulator to support these measures. The implementation period for the Programme is 6 years: employers are being 'staged' by size, starting with the largest, over the period October 2012 to February 2018; and contributions to pension schemes are being ‘phased’ in over time to provide a period of adjustment for employers and individuals, with full contributions being paid from October 2018. Once fully implemented the Department expects to see around 9 million people newly saving or saving more into a workplace pension, and an increase in pension saving of around £11 billion a year. The central premise of the Government’s vision is to support separated parents to work together in the interests of their children and set up their own, family-based child maintenance arrangements. For those who are not able to do this, the Department has introduced the 2012 Child Maintenance Scheme, administered by the Child Maintenance Service. The 2012 scheme delivered two critical changes to the policy and regulations which both simplified the approach to child maintenance calculations and provided a new IT platform on which it could be administered. The Department’s Conditionality Package supports a core principle that underpins the Government’s welfare reform policies: increasing what is required of claimants in exchange for benefits, and strengthening how the Department monitors compliance with that increased conditionality. The following conditionality and compliance measures make up the package: 1. Day One Conditionality – claimants are required to demonstrate positive job seeking behaviours from day one of their claim by ensuring they have an e-mail address, high quality CV and are registered with Universal Jobmatch. 2. Weekly Work Search Reviews – 50 per cent of pre-Work Programme Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) claimants and Universal Credit (UC) claimants are subject to intensive work search requirements. 3. Quarterly Work Search Interviews – pre-Work Programme claimants in receipt of JSA, and UC claimants subject to intensive work search requirements, are required to attend a 20 minute advisory interview every 13 weeks. 4. English Language Requirements – claimants being screened to see if they can communicate in English (very basic speaking skills) and, as necessary, mandated to an assessment and English Language training. 5. Increasing Lone Parent Conditionality for certain groups of lone parents aged 18 and over and nominated carers. The Department established the Estates Programme in 2010 to support the efficiency challenge in SR10 and SR13. In February 2014, the Programme’s scope was extended to include work to replace the 20 year contract for DWP buildings, which expires in March 2018. In January 2013, the Government published its response to a major review of the sickness absence system in Great Britain. As part of this review the Government committed to: • The introduction of a new Fit for Work (FfW) service in England and Wales which will deliver both a supportive occupational health assessment and general health and work advice to employees, employers and General Practitioners (GP). • The delivery of enablers which allow the Scottish Government to implement FfW in Scotland. This will provide advice on sick absence (via on-line and telephone) for employers and employees and an assessment service for employees on sick leave for four weeks or more. • The abolition of the Percentage Threshold Scheme (PTS) to address perverse behaviours among employers who rely on reimbursement through the scheme rather than actively managing sickness absence. The funding from the PTS will be recycled into FfW to support a proactive approach to sickness absence management. • The abolition of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) record keeping obligations, which will lift the administration burden off employers. The legislative changes to PTS and SSP will be implemented by the Department, with the administrative changes to HMRC operational processes being made via a separate project in HMRC. The Fraud, Error and Debt Programme aims to deliver into the Department the means to prevent fraud and error in the first instance; detect and correct fraud and error where it does exist; deliver tough punishments for those who defraud the system; and deter those who would try to abuse the system in future. The objectives of the Programme are to: • Save approximately £2 billion in welfare benefit expenditure by the end of the 2014-15 financial year. • Contribute to the Department’s target to reduce the level of benefit expenditure overpaid to a maximum of 1.7 per cent by 2015. • Deliver a single fraud investigation service as a more efficient way of carrying out benefit fraud investigations currently processed separately by DWP, HMRC and Local Authorities. • Introduce the capability for a range of business users across DWP to access HMRC Real Time Information on earnings and employer data;. • Deliver a referral and case management system to support improved Fraud, Error and Debt Operations. • Enable the Government to recover greater levels of debt, and ensure those who move off benefit can still be liable for their debt. The Programme is adopting a phased delivery approach between 2012 and 2017 and will continue to build on the successful "Spend to Save" data matching activity which is well underway to ensure a sustainable reduction in losses in the benefit system. The Programme generated £1.8 billion in savings up to the end of September 2014, and will realise further savings through the life of the programme business case. The Department’s Help to Work Package supports the Government’s principle that the longer a jobseeker remains on Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit (for claimants subject to intensive work search requirements), the more the Department will expect of them to look for and secure suitable employment. A new package of Help to Work measures went live in every Jobcentre by 31 December 2014. One third of claimants returning from the Work Programme will be allocated to one of the following 3 elements depending on individual need: • Mandatory Intervention Regime (MIR) – coaches have more time to spend with claimants, and can use other support such as referral to training, local provision and using the flexible support fund. This will be a continuous period until the claimants’ barriers to employment have been addressed; claimants who have completed the other two elements will also be referred back to MIR. • Daily Work Search Reviews – a period of 4-13 weeks of daily activity at the Jobcentre. • Community Work Placements – a work placement that is of benefit to the community for up to 30 hours per week, and up to 10 hours of job-search activity. This programme will transform the Department’s major commercial vehicles for delivering IT services, as they come to an end between 2014 and 2016. The objectives of the Programme are to: • Ensure continuity of supply of IT to the Department. • Reduce the cost of IT provision relative to the cost of replacing the contracts. • Improve responsiveness and service levels delivered by our suppliers. • Maximise future flexibility and avoid lock-in to any supplier. • Maintain a strong in-house capability to acquire and manage critical IT services. • Extend the Department’s deals to other Government Departments. • Introduce smaller companies into the IT supply chain. • Ensure compliance with Government ICT Strategy; • Optimise commercial outcomes by seeking the best deal for the Department overall The Project will deliver the reforms to State Pension included in the Pensions Act 2014. These reforms are designed to give greater clarity about the State Pension someone can expect to receive from the Government, address some inequalities in the current system and provide a firm foundation for saving for retirement for people reaching State Pension age from 6 April 2016. Changes include removing the complexities of the current system by moving to a single state pension set above the level of the basic means tested benefit. This together with abolition of the Savings Credit will provide today’s savers with greater clarity about what they will receive from the State. It also reduces the number of people reliant on the basic means test. The Department is also abolishing contracting out from defined benefit pension schemes. To ensure fairness the calculation of new State Pension will recognise pre 2016 National Insurance records. The Department leads the Project, working closely with HMRC to deliver the necessary changes to systems and processes. The Project will ensure staff in both the Department and HMRC are equipped to deliver the reform and that the changes are communicated to current and future pensioners, employers, trustees and scheme providers at the appropriate time Personal Independence Payment replaces Disability Living Allowance for people aged 16-64. It is aimed at those disabled people who face the greatest challenge to remaining independent and participating in society. It provides a more objective assessment of needs and is more responsive to changes in those needs. Claimants can receive PIP whether they are in or out of work. The benefit is not means tested. Key features include: • A dynamic benefit which is simpler to claim and administer. • A more financially sustainable benefit than DLA that delivers significant AME savings over the life of the investment. • A standardised Operating Model that efficiently matches the service to claimants’ needs. • New IT and business processes to enable the application and administration of this new benefit. The first tranche of activity to accept new claims to PIP commenced in April 2013. In October 2013, further activity commenced to assess DLA claimants for entitlement to PIP when their DLA award ends or they notify the Department of a change. In October 2015, activity to assess all other existing DLA claimants is planned to commence. Universal Credit (UC) involves the merger of six separate benefits and tax credits for working age people bringing together in and out of work systems into one system that attempts to make work pay for everyone. When fully rolled out it is expected that over 7 million households will be in receipt. Legislated for in 2012-13 it has now entered implementation phase.
Departmental commentary on actions planned or taken on the MPA RAG rating. Implementation has been successful to date. Over 5 million people automatically enrolled by December 2014 with an opt-out rate averaging less than 10 per cent. Rates of on-time compliance remain very high for those employers who have staged so far, and the Department successfully negotiated high staging volumes in Summer 2014. The Programme remains on course to complete implementation to timetable. The Programme’s focus now is to support the circa 1.3 million small and micro employers who begin staging from June 2015. The Department is refining the ways in which it has supported larger employers in order to meet the needs of smaller employers, and to this is: • testing variants of its communications channels to identify the most effective means of engagement and of securing timely compliance; • helping payroll providers, advisers and intermediaries to fully support employers; and • working closely with pension scheme providers and other sectors to manage the capacity required to support the delivery of the programme. The MPA reviewed the Programme in December 2014 and supported the Department’s approach. The current rating balances the good progress so far and the scale of the challenges to come. Following the MPA review in May 2013 that considered the successful delivery of Phase 1, all recommendations were accepted and addressed by the Programme. Phase 1 of the Programme is now complete. This introduced the new IT system, a mandatory gateway to encourage family based arrangements and, where these arrangements cannot be made, an application to the statutory 2012 scheme. The MPA revisited the Programme in February 2014 and subsequently increased the delivery confidence rating for successful delivery of Phase 2. All recommendations from this review were accepted and addressed by the Programme. Phase 2, which went live between 30 June 2014 and 11 August 2014, introduced client charging and triggered the start of proactive historic case closure activity. An MPA review was completed in November 2014. The Delivery Confidence assessment reflects that: • All previous MPA review recommendations have been implemented. • All Jobcentres were live with Day 1 Conditionality and Weekly Work Search Reviews and had achieved 50 per cent for Weekly Work Search Reviews by the end of October 2014. • All of the other measures (Quarterly Work Search, Increasing Lone Parent Conditionality and English Language Requirements – England only) were live from April 2014, with English Language Requirements going live in Scotland and Wales from 27 November 2014. A revised business case has been developed which outlines the potential reduction in estates demand and the associated people impacts. The Programme has also taken steps to ensure its work is aligned with other transformation programmes, during a period of unprecedented welfare reform. Regional teams have been put in place and are responsible for exploring the potential future estates blueprint in each of 7 regions across the country. As result of an MPA review, the Programme has reviewed its risk management process so that implementation related risks are discussed regularly, including at the Risk Review and Programme Boards. The Programme, with the supplier, has ensured that there are robust integrated plans in place for the delivery of FfW which is monitored through regular checkpoint meetings and reviewed at Programme Board. The Programme has established clear engagement strategies for General Practitioners, employers and employees; including clear responsibilities for each activity. This is monitored through regular Communications Working Group meetings and through the Programme Plan. The Programme had an MPA review in November 2014. This recognised the good governance processes in place and the significant progress made by the Programme in the last year. The review team stated that it was particularly impressed by the Programme’s benefits management, describing it as ‘an exemplar across government’. An MPA review was completed in November 2014. The delivery confidence assessment reflects that: • All previous MPA recommendations have been implemented. • All Jobcentres were live with all Help to Work measures by 31 December 2014. • Management Information reports that have been produced have been tested and confirmed as fit for purpose. • Robust contract management is in place. The Programme has taken action against the nine recommendations the MPA made in October 2014 with seven of the nine recommendations having been cleared by February 2015. Recent confirmation of the Programme’s strategic direction will enable the outstanding actions relating to programme plans and dependencies to be resolved quickly. An MPA Review in January 2015 made a number of recommendations that were accepted and are currently being addressed. The review acknowledged that: • The Project has developed, in partnership with HMRC, an integrated IT plan that encompasses the full programme of pension changes. • The Project is now fully constituted with appropriate governance and an experienced project team in place. • The Detailed Business Requirements have been defined and agreed ready to move into the build and test phase in readiness to deliver the IT changes in October 2015 to meet the April 2016 policy implementation date. • The Project has implemented an integrated communication campaign to inform existing and future customers what to expect. A bespoke statement service has been set up for future customers, who are within 15 years of their state pension age to find out what they will get under the new rules. This service will subsequently be replaced by a new Digital Statement service which is currently being developed in parallel as a separate project and jointly with HMRC. The Programme had an MPA review in November 2014 which recognised the significant improvements made since the previous review in May 2014. Improvements to processes, IT and increased capacity have resulted in productivity increases and greater flexibility for Assessment Providers and the Department. These changes have resulted in a significant increase in clearance of applications to PIP, evident in the statistics published in January 2015. The Programme continues to develop its approach for transforming and improving the PIP service, including the introduction of online services. The Programme's delivery plan was announced in September 2014. At the same time HM Treasury agreed the Strategic Outline Business Case. It set out an approach which reduced risk across the lifetime of the Programme. These plans were developed and agreed with delivery partners, including Local Authorities and HMRC. The plans included: • Continued expansion of the existing UC service to the whole of the North West by December 2014. • Extension of this Live Service to include families by March 2015. • Introduction of UC to single claimants nationally throughout 2015-16 . • A controlled test of the UC Digital Service commencing on 26 November 2014 in a single postcode area testing UC for all claimant types • Establishing a UC service across Great Britain by 2017 with the caseload continuing to build thereafter.
Project - Start Date (Latest approved start date) 01/05/2007 01/08/2009 19/12/2013 16/02/2012 27/02/2013 02/04/2012 19/12/2013 01/04/2013 27/02/2012 31/10/2011 17/11/2011
Project - End Date (Latest approved end date) 30/11/2018 31/12/2015 23/04/2015 31/03/2018 31/03/2015 31/03/2017 23/04/2015 28/02/2016 31/10/2017 31/03/2016 30/04/2020
Departmental narrative on schedule, including any deviation from planned schedule (if necessary) The Programme went live on time. The delivery model has been designed to manage peaks in volumes and the Department expects to deliver as planned. Phase 1 of the Programme is complete. Phase 2 of the Programme went live on 30 June 2014. Phase 2 introduced client charging and triggered the start of proactive 1993/2003 Scheme case closure activity. Case closure is being conducted in a way that accords with Ministerial decisions and the Case Closure regulations. The closure programme is expected to take around three years to complete and there are around 900,000 1993 and 2003 scheme cases to close. The aim is to have all statutory scheme clients on one set of assessment rules using one IT system, managed by one organisation. Segment 1 (nil assessed cases) case closure went live on 30 June 2014 as planned. Segment 2 (nil compliant cases) case closure went live on 26 January 2015 as planned. Segment 3 (compliant cases off system) and Segment 4 (compliant cases on system) case closure activity started on 18 May 2015 as planned. Activities are now underway to develop the high level designs to enable closure of our final case closure segment; Segment 5 (enforced cases), and Arrears Only cases. Both of which are planned to start in 2016. With all measures in the SR13 Conditionality package now introduced, the Programme remains on plan to complete implementation. The Programme is on course to deliver its plans within timescales and budget. There are a number of complex issues that remain to be resolved and the Programme has a significant delivery challenge. The Fit for Work Programme is now expected to complete its work in October 2015; this is due to a phased implementation being agreed. The FfW Advice Service was introduced in Great Britain in December 2014. The Assessment Service launched a small Proof of Concept in January 2015, prior to the launch of FfW in March 2015. Our current planning assumption is that the Assessment Service will be rolled out across Great Britain by October 2015. The Assessment Service went live in Scotland at the end of January 2015. A number of new initiatives have been added to the Programme. This change in scope, along with dependencies with other programmes, has resulted in a change to the delivery schedule, including moving the end date of the Programme to 2017. These new initiatives will deliver further fraud, error and debt savings for the taxpayer. With all elements now introduced, the Project remains on plan for full delivery. A number of contracts have been successfully re-competed resulting in savings over existing arrangements, notably Security and Networks. The remaining activity is continuing to plan with a number of contract extensions agreed to facilitate safe transition to the new services as they go-live. All plans are on track and there is no deviation from the planned schedule. Go-live is due in April 2016 with the main enabling IT release scheduled for October 2015. In January 2015 the Project achieved a major milestone in signing off its design and IT requirements and gaining approval from HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office to move into the detailed build phase. The Programme has been developed in a number of phases which are on track to deliver. The handover to business as usual will be planned post commencement of the reassessment of the existing DLA caseload in October 2015. Delivery remains on track against plans announced in September 2014. Additionally the Programme has brought forward testing of initiatives from which the programme can learn including the: • Continued trialling of Universal Support in partnership areas to ensure the right integrated local foundations are in place to support UC expansion. • Extending In work progression trials to help households increase their earnings once they have found work. • Extending the role of UC Work Coaches to engage with households at their work search interview to assess financial capability
2014/2015 Budget (£million) £117.50m £86.66m £135.02m £23.57m £28.99m £111.30m £127.25m £36.50m £19.87m £231.48m £323.80m
2014/2015 Forecast (£million) £120.21m £69.18m £136.16m £18.72m £18.97m £98.81m £130.96m £30.40m £19.87m £303.61m £323.80m
2014/2015 Variance (£million) £2.71m -£17.48m £1.14m -£4.85m -£10.03m -£12.49m £3.71m -£6.10m £0m £72.13m £0m
2014/2015 Variance %age 2% -20% 1% -21% -35% -11% 3% -17% 0% 31% 0%
Total budgeted whole life costs (£million) (including non-government costs) £995.40m £1,218.33m £1,902.28m £173.31m £324.11m £838.90m £695.66m £165.50m £168.16m £2,525.94m £15,844.02m
Departmental narrative on budget/forecast variance for 2014/15 (if variance is more than 5%) n/a The variance primarily relates to the 3 month delay to the go-live of Phase 2. The budget is based on Version B9 of the business case (baselined July 2013) which assumed a Phase 2 go live of 31 March 2014 allowing 12 full months of Case Closure activity within CMG Operations in 2014-15. The subsequent agreement to move the go-live date for Phase 2 from March 2014 to June 2014 meant that only 9 months of case closure activity took place in 2014-15. n/a A number of offices that were planned for closure in 2014-15 will now close in 2015-16. The £10m underspend reflects the set up and delivery costs in the finalised contract with the supplier of the new Fit for Work Service in England and Wales, which take account of the build-up of customer volumes over initial stages and the corresponding output payments. The overall reduction in forecast against budget is largely attributable to changes in the level of resource that the Programme has needed to deploy against the original resource estimates together with changes in the forecast level and timing of IT expenditure. n/a The forecast has reduced due to a revised strategy for IT Hosting. n/a The 2014-15 budget is derived from the February 2014 business case. IT was updated to reflect the Programme’s aim to improve performance and clear backlogs. The variance against the actual budget allocation in January 2015 was less than 1%. n/a
Departmental narrative on budgeted whole life costs The whole life costs cover the period from 2007-08 when the Programme started through to 2017-18 - the business case period (as per the business case at September 2012). The funding covers: the set up and running costs of NEST (through a repayable loan); the set-up and running costs of the compliance regime within the Pension Regulator; the communications costs for raising awareness through a series of campaigns; and the costs associated with running the Programme Management Office. Whole life costs reflect the total costs associated with the Child Maintenance Reform Programme. The forecast of £1,321m is 8.5% more than the budgeted whole life costs of £1,218m. The budgeted costs reflect Business Case B9 and the current forecast incorporates delivery changes (the approval to move the go-live date of Phase 2 from March 2014 to June 2014 using a pathfinder approach) as outlined in the draft Business Case TB10. The Department will deliver the SR13 conditionality package within the agreed budgeted whole life costs (as set out in the business case June 2014) and this is managed within the framework of all labour market packages to monitor total performance against forecast. The whole life costs to 2023-24 include additional Jobcentre Plus advisers and Work Programme provider costs. The whole life costs represent the business case funding requirements to deliver a new Estates Commercial vehicle beyond 31 March 2018. Following a Cabinet Office request the Estates Programme Business case has been updated (May 2014) to reflect the Department’s total Estates Strategy up to 31 March 2028. The budgeted whole life costs of £324m reflect the business case as at July 2014 and largely cover on-going supplier costs to deliver the Fit for Work Service in England and Wales, and costs to support the provision of the Service in Scotland. The budgeted whole life costs are based on the business case as at June 2014 and include changes to the scope of the Programme. The whole life costs to 2021-22 include implementation and running costs of a Single Fraud Investigation Service, a number of Spend to Save projects, and changes to Fraud Sanctions and Debt Recovery initiatives. The Department will deliver the Help to Work package within the agreed budgeted whole life costs (as set out in the business case May 2014) and this is managed within the framework of all labour market packages to monitor total performance against forecast. The whole life costs to 2019-20 include additional Jobcentre Plus advisers and Work Programme provider costs. The whole life costs fund the cross functional team negotiating the replacement of IT contracts. In addition there are costs associated with exiting the existing contracts and start-up costs for the new IT providers. The budget reflects the business case as at April 2014. The Project’s whole life costs are forecast to reduce as IT costs for the Department and HMRC are expected to be lower. Over the business case lifetime to 2022-23, the costs include operating staff in both departments, IT, Communications and project delivery costs. The budget was updated in September 2014. The costs cover both investment and operating costs (including IT systems, Operational and Programme costs) over the business case period (i.e. to 2021-22 inclusive). These costs are significantly outweighed by reductions to Annually Managed Expenditure over the same period. The budgeted whole life costs reflect the Strategic Outline Business Case approved by HM Treasury. This figure excludes the impact of further savings expected to be delivered by the Programme.