Transparency data
DWP Government Major Project Portfolio data, September 2017 (csv)
Updated 4 July 2018
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| Project Name | Automatic Enrolment Programme | Universal Credit Programme | Fraud, Error and Debt Programme | DWP People and Locations Programme | Work and Health Programme |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department | DWP | DWP | DWP | DWP | DWP |
| IPA Delivery Confidence Assessment (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/Green | Amber | Amber | Amber/Red | Amber |
| Description / Aims | 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; and to increase the incentive to remain saving in a pension scheme, there is a mandatory employer contribution. 2) The National Employment Savings Trust ? which has a public service obligation to accept any employer who wishes to use it to meet their employer duty. It provides a good quality pension to individuals on low to moderate earnings. 3) An employer compliance regime - run by the Pension Regulator to support these measures. The implementation approach is gradual, with employers being 'staged' by size, over the period October 2012 to February 2018, with original business case estimates forecasting an increase of savers between 6-9 million. Contributions to pension schemes are being gradually increased over time to provide a period of adjustment for employers and individuals, with full contributions being paid from April 2019. The original business case estimated that once contribution rates were fully phased in, pension savings as a result of AE would have increased by œ8 billion per year. | Universal Credit replaces six separate benefits and tax credits for working age people, bringing together in and out of work systems into one, to make work pay. When fully rolled out it is expected that up to 7 million households will benefit from Universal Credit. Legislated for in 2012-13, it has now entered implementation phase. Planned benefits are: ? Improved employment outcomes ? Improving efficiency through automation ? Reducing fraud and error ? Controlling welfare costs ? Providing a safety net For each benefit, the Programme has identified Key Performance Indicators and demonstration methodologies underpinned by supporting data and lead indicators. The Benefit Realisation Steering Group (BRSG) provides senior oversight and ongoing assurance of progress on behalf of the SRO. | The Fraud, Error & Debt Programme (FEDP) delivers major transformational outcomes designed to ensure the Department manages fraud, error and debt in a systematic way - from initial referral, through risk management, to interventions and debt recovery. The Programme has a proven track record of delivering complex projects and initiatives in a well-managed way, receiving positive external endorsements. It supports the operational achievements of targets and transforming services whilst enabling the delivery of key components of major welfare reform programmes such as Universal Credit (UC). It has already delivered œ3bn AME benefits, and expects to deliver a further œ2bn by the end of the business case. | Designing and delivering a blueprint of our people, teams and locations in 2018 and beyond while optimising the space we use, as we exit the current estates PRIME contract and take on new contractual arrangements from April 2018. The Programme will deliver a right sized estate. This will meet current and future business needs, refreshing and redesigning, where appropriate, office environments to support more flexible and new ways of working. It will do this whilst addressing underutilisation of around 30% of paid space that has built up throughout the PRIME contract. Based on the current set of assumptions we are aiming to deliver a saving for the Department on estate running costs in excess of œ100m per annum averaged over ten years, from April 2018. This will be achieved through a combination of paying for less space, cheaper rents and new facilities management arrangements; all in line with the Government future estates strategy. In addition, the Programme is an enabler of wider transformation of the Department, including Smart Working and modernising our estate. The Programme is complying with Section 1.06.1 of accompanying GMPP guidance regarding Ministerial request for confirmation of programmes with a steel component. | The Work and Health Programme (WHP) replaces the Work Programme and Work Choice Programme. WHP will design, procure and implement a new contracted employment provision that from November 2017 will aim to transform the lives of people with disabilities and the long term unemployed. WHP is expected to cost around œ525m, including relatively modest investment costs of œ10m. Over the life of the programme it will deliver economic benefits of over œ130m each year on average. For every œ1 invested in WHP, we estimate the economic benefit to be œ1.40. |
| Departmental commentary on actions planned or taken on the IPA RAG rating. | Programme implementation has been, and continues to be, hugely successful so far with the original aim of 6-9 million employees automatically enrolled being achieved ahead of forecast. The Programme estimates in relation to the amount of increased savings have also increased significantly to œ20 billion per year against an initial estimate of œ8 billion per year. The Programme has in place a robust monitoring and evaluation strategy that draws information from all of the programme stakeholders and is reported routinely on a monthly basis. Our approach to monitoring is iterative and analytical colleagues continually look to enhance the options available. The outputs of this monitoring show that there continues to be high levels of compliance amongst the c.1million employers that have declared and opt-out rates amongst individuals remain consistently low at around 10%. The Programme is now focusing on supporting small and micro employers through the final months of roll-out, alongside preparing all employers, and their employees, for the forthcoming increases in pension contribution rates in April 2018 and April 2019. The Programme is also working to support employers that have been established since October 2017 and must automatically enrol new employees into a workplace pension from the outset. Whilst there remains a level of uncertainty around the ongoing behaviours of employers and employees, when balanced with the significant success of the Programme in achieving its objectives to date, the programme board rate the programme overall as Amber/Green. | The latest IPA Health Check took place early September 2017 and assessed the Programme?s readiness to move to scale from October. | The Programme continues to deliver complex projects and initiatives and works with cross Government partners on the delivery of major components of the Government?s welfare reform agenda and FED strategy. Programme structures, controls and methods are mature, and the Programme has robust plans and a proven track record of delivery. Having reported a reduction in anticipated AME savings for 2017/18 ? primarily due to the impact of changes in the environment into which projects had delivered and/or re-scheduling of major initiatives elsewhere in the Department - the Programme is seeking further opportunities to mitigate some of the identified savings reductions. The benefits position is both actively managed (utilising FED analyst expertise and benefiting from Programme & finance challenge) and well understood, and the Programme has significant additional savings for projects brought into the scope of the Programme which are not reflected in the current signed-off business case. The Programme Business Case is currently being refreshed with sign off scheduled in March 18. The Programme is also investing further energy in supporting Benefit Owners to gain a fuller understanding of their responsibilities. | All but 2 x recommendations from the IPA Project Assessment Reviews (PARs) and Major Projects Review Group (MPRG) prior to June 2017 have been completed/actioned. Those carried forward were: ? The formal sign-off of lease agreements needs to be completed at the optimum time and recognising value for money objectives. The PLP needs to ensure that, using appropriate management information, explicit decisions are made on the basis of trade-offs between the time available and the achievement of value for money. ? PLP needs to de-risk the delivery of the procurement of the ETOM (Estates Target Operating Model). It should produce both a detailed procurement plan and TT (Telereal Trillium) exit strategy and develop a critical path. Working with partners, the PLP needs to identify and remove current significant barriers to progress by securing early additional resources and simplifying the procurement process. The PLP should ensure that appropriate contingencies are introduced and managed. The June 2017 IPA brought a further 8 x recommendations which are being actively managed, with action managers appointed for each one. All 8 remained outstanding as at 30 September 2017. The recommendations from the June IPA were: ? The Programme Team develops end to end plans for each individual site together with a robust integrated Programme plan including a Gantt chart with activities from other programmes where there are interdependencies. ? Business Continuity plans, primarily for the Capex impacted sites, should be refreshed and or created to ensure fitness for purpose for the short to medium term. ? The Programme Team to agree with internal and external approvals bodies the measures to streamline the approvals processes. ? Review the Programme Board membership, presentation of Board papers including a dashboard and confirm/communicate the authority of the Programme Manager. ? The resourcing of the retained function needs to commence in parallel to the PLP implementation to ensure the right level and type of specialist skills are secured to ensure a seamless handover at the point when the TT contract expires to ensure effective management and maintenance of the VFM driven from the TT exit. ? The FBC needs to be updated to reflect full TUPE, contingency, business continuity and Furniture, Fixture and Equipment (FFE) costs and associated risks must be managed. ? As roll out commences, monitor impact on staff and the business, particularly in the job centres/back of house to ensure lessons are learned and changes made for the ongoing roll out. This will include ensuring that people are given the right level/type of support to minimise the personal impact and consequent business disruption. ? PLP should prioritise core elements of work against non-essential activities, outlining how the deprioritised activities could be delivered post PLP implementation, including SMART working. There were a further 3 x recommendations from the 21 July MPRG, one of which was cleared by the end of June leaving the following outstanding as at 30 September: Programme to provide progress updates to MPRG in October on: ? The Programme?s end-to-end plans for each individual site and how delivery is progressing against the integrated programme plan, including where there are interdependencies with other programmes (particularly Universal Credit). ? A summary of the Programme?s detailed contingency of continuity plans and the associated DEL costs, assuming that the Programme continues to provide details of site by site planning in the Programme Board papers (should be noted by the HMT any AME costs are incurred). ? The Department?s plan for the estates and intelligent client function after March 2018, including the contractual relationships between that function, the integrator and the other pillars of the ETOM. This should include an explanation of the incentives that DWP are setting for each of the providers. Monitored activity is on-going to ensure speedy clearance of all outstanding recommendations. | In response to the recommendations from the IPA review completed August 17 the programme: ? is working with all LGP London CPAs to develop detailed implementation plans ? has agreed revised fortnightly Business Engagement Forums (BEF) ToRs. Programme Director chairs the BEFs from 25/09/17. ? is updating the Evaluation strategy and developing further measurable criteria for local authority involvement. ? has agreed National Contract Package Area roll out schedule from 27/11/17. |
| Project - Start Date (Latest approved start date) | 01/05/2007 | 17/11/2011 | 02/04/2012 | 19/11/2015 | 01/12/2015 |
| Project - End Date (Latest approved end date) | 30/11/2019 | 30/06/2022 | 31/03/2021 | 27/04/2018 | 31/03/2018 |
| Departmental narrative on schedule, including any deviation from planned schedule (if necessary) | The Programme went live on time. The implementation approach has been designed to accommodate the significant increase in volumes over the 2015-2018 period, the Programme is on track to deliver this to timetable. | Overall status remains AMBER, in line with the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) delivery confidence assessment. We have approval of the UC Outline Business Case and funding drawdown through to the end of April 2018 and are currently developing the Full Business Case for approval in spring 2018. In order to implement the Autumn Budget 2017 measures we have revised the roll-out schedule which will now complete in December 2018. The Programme continues its gradual, safe and secure delivery approach. We have successfully implemented the Full Service in 235 offices, as planned, continuing the scaling up from October 2017. The migration of claimants from legacy benefits will commence in July 2019 and complete in March 2022. All Critical Milestones continue to be delivered on time with evidence to date that UC claimants are consistently more likely to be in employment than under Legacy benefits. | The Programme continues to: - make good progress on developing digital services which exploit HMRC RTI to reduce fraud & error and generate significant savings for government; - progress projects that seek to deliver transformational services into DWP Fraud & Error and Debt operations, and Local Authorities, with assurance reviews held at both project and programme level; - work closely with Digital Group as, whilst the availability of Digital Group resources remain a consideration, Digital Group explore opportunities to utilise resources more flexibly across areas of work; and - progress development of solutions incorporated in the Programme scope since the 16/17 return, which contribute to transforming services for DWP customers. The Programme Business Case refresh will be completed by March 18 and will reflect the updated savings position and amended delivery timescale, driven by the inclusion of additional projects into scope of the Programme, following announcements made in the Spring and Autumn Budgets 2017. | The Programme remains confident it can successfully deliver and effective optimal estate for DWP?s future business. This will be achieved whilst protecting customer service, protecting welfare reform, minimising the impact on our people and delivering cost efficiencies. The PLP remained rated A/R following IPA and MPRG reviews in June and July 2017 respectively. There is acceptance this rating level was awarded due to programme scale and scope. PLP continued to deliver despite many challenges, the complexity of the old and new commercial arrangements and movement of people to align with departmental strategies. There was significant delivery progress in Q2 17/18 with the Programme scaling up for core delivery to the end of the financial year. Also in this period, a range of contingency measures were agreed at the Programme Board to mitigate the risk to service delivery. These contingency options will be factored into the Departmental financial planning for both 2017/18 and 2018/19. They are also supported by a revised governance structure to ensure timely decision making. The measures may move the delivery of up to c50 offices into the period between October 2017 and April 2018, an increase on previous plans, but will be subject to further Programme Board agreement. Planned office closures through to Spring 2018 were published on the departmental internet site in July. As the offices close, the number of unassigned people (at risk of redundancy) was found to be significantly lower than anticipated. By the end of Q2 Redeployment panels had already posted over 40% of those identified and were confident that impacts could be minimised. | The Programme successfully passed through the Critical Design Review at Programme Board 24/08/17. The Full Business Case was approved at Investment Committee 31/08/17. Treasury Approval Point 06/09/17 approved the Full Business Case subject to a number of minor conditions that the Programme are progressing. The commercial process completed on schedule with notification letters issued to Providers 18/09/17. |
| 2017/18 TOTAL Baseline œm (including Non-Government costs) | £103.08 | £853.42 | £87.00 | £329.80 | £26.22 |
| 2017/18 TOTAL Forecast œm (including Non-Government costs) | £70.98 | £683.08 | £89.79 | £230.90 | £26.22 |
| 2017/2018 Variance %age | -31% | -20% | 3% | -30% | 0% |
| Whole Life Cost TOTAL Baseline œm (including Non-Government costs) | £1,249.00 | £13,573.72 | £786.50 | £5,903.78 | £532.70 |
| Departmental narrative on budget/forecast variance for 2017/18 (if variance is more than 5%) | The proportion of employers complying continues to be higher than forecast so the costs of ensuring compliance have been lower than budgeted. | Forecast spend in 2017/18 is below budget primarily due to - lower estimates of operational resource costs following revisions to roll out schedules and volumes for the Full Service; and, savings on IT recurrent costs. | Budget variance less than 5% | The Programme is now in delivery mode and the variance reflects movement in the delivery schedule with some costs slipping to 18/19 as the programme progresses. | Budget variance less than 5% |
| Departmental Narrative on Budgeted Whole Life Costs | The whole life costs now cover the period from 2007-08 to November 2019 (rather than to 17/18) and includes the set-up and running costs of the compliance regime within The Pensions Regulator (TPR); the communications costs for raising awareness through a series of campaigns; and Programme costs. | The budgeted whole life cost figure reflects the Outline Business Case as approved by HMT in December 2015 and excludes the impact of savings expected to be delivered by the Programme. | The programme business case was re-baselined and this resulted in a reinterpretation of some of the costs. There are also some projects in the early stages of lifecycle whose costs may still change. | The increase in budgeted whole life costs is predominantly in recurrent costs. This is due to the slippage and needing to retain some contingency sites longer than originally expected | Costs re-baselined for FBC (version FinalV1/latest TAP). Increase in recurrent costs reflects the inclusion of additional participant volumes as part of a package of support to certain ESA benefit recipients impacted by a change in regulations. |