Department for Work and Pensions
 | |
| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 8 June 2001 |
| Preceding Department | |
| Jurisdiction | Government of the United Kingdom |
| Headquarters | Caxton House 7th Floor 6–12 Tothill Street London SW1H 9NA |
| Employees | 84,550 as of June 2024[update][1] |
| Annual budget | £176.3 billion (Resource AME),[2] £6.3 billion (Resource DEL),[3] £0.3 billion (Capital DEL), £2.3 billion (Non-Budget Expenditure) Estimated for year ending 31 March 2017[4] |
| Secretary of State responsible | |
| Department executive | |
| Website | gov |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of the United Kingdom |
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The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy. As the UK's biggest public service department it administers the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers.[6] It is the second largest governmental department in terms of employees,[1] and the second largest in terms of expenditure (£228bn as of July 2021[update]).[7]
The department has two delivery services: Jobcentre Plus administers working age benefits: Universal Credit, Jobseeker's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance; the Child Maintenance Service provides the statutory child support scheme. DWP also administers State Pension, Pension Credit, disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment, and support for life events from Maternity Allowance to bereavement benefits.
Non-departmental bodies accountable to DWP include the Health and Safety Executive, The Pensions Regulator and the Money and Pensions Service.
History
[edit]The department was created on 8 June 2001 as a merger of the Department of Social Security, Employment Service and the policy groups of the Department for Education and Employment involved in employment policy and international issues.[8][9][10]
The department was initially tasked with creating Jobcentre Plus and the Pensions Service from the Employment Service and the Benefits Agency.[9] The department became responsible for welfare and pension policy.[11] It aims "to help its customers become financially independent and to help reduce child poverty".[12]
In 2012, the department fully subsumed pensions, disability and life events under the DWP name; Jobcentre Plus and Child Maintenance Service remain as distinct identities publicly.
In 2019, the department was found by an independent inquiry to have broken its own rules, in a case where a disabled woman killed herself in 2017 after her benefits were stopped when she missed a Work Capability Assessment because she had pneumonia.[13] Previous research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health by Oxford University and Liverpool University had found that there were an additional 590 suicides between 2010 and 2013 in areas where such assessments were carried out. The researchers said that the DWP had introduced the policy of moving people off benefits without understanding the consequences.[14]
Until 2021, the DWP was still using ICL VME based computer systems, originating from its 1988 Pension Service Computer System, to support state pension payments.[15][16] The software was migrated to an in-house VME replacement system, in one of the largest computer replacement projects in Europe.[17][18]
Ministers
[edit]DWP Ministers are as follows, with cabinet members in bold:[19][20]
| Minister | Portrait | Office | Portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Rt Hon. Liz Kendall MP | _2.jpg)
|
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions | Overall responsibility for the department; people of working age; employers; pensioners; families and children; disabled people. |
| Alison McGovern MP | 
|
Minister of State for Employment | Labour market including employer engagement; addressing inactivity; poverty; Jobcentre Plus; devolution; In Work Progression; skills; disability employment; childcare; Access to Work; Youth Offer; Occupational Health and Statutory Sick Pay; conditionality and sanctions |
| The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms MP | 
|
Minister of State for Social Security and Disability | Disability policy and cross-government responsibility for disabled people; oversight of Disability Unit, and convenor of Disability Champions; work and health strategy, including sponsorship of the joint Department for Work and Pensions / Department for Health and Social Care Work and Health Unit, and disability benefit reform; disability employment, and disability employment programmes; financial support for those at risk of falling out of work, and disabled claimants including, Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Carer’s Allowance (CA); Support for disadvantaged groups; Youth Offer; Government Equalities Office (GEO) lead, Women and the Menopause; Military Covenant; Housing Benefit strategy and delivery, including Support for Mortgage Interest and supported accommodation.[21] |
| Emma Reynolds MP | 
|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions | Private pensions; State Pension; pensioner benefits; Social Fund; Net Zero; Shadow Lords (including Child Maintenance Service and disadvantaged groups); arm's-length bodies (Money and Pensions Service, National Employment Savings Trust, The Pensions Ombudsman, Pension Protection Fund and The Pensions Regulator); HM Treasury responsibilities |
| Andrew Western MP | .jpg)
|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transformation | |
| The Rev and Rt Hon The Baroness Sherlock | 
|
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions | Cross-DWP Lords spokesperson, fraud, error and debt strategy, national insurance number policy, oversight of departmental statutory instruments and managing the relationship with the Social Security Advisory Committee, departmental planning and performance management, and departmental business |
The Permanent Secretary is Sir Peter Schofield.[5]
Pension Service
[edit]With the creation of the department in June 2001, the Pension Service was created, bringing together many different departments and divisions. The Pension Service is a 'dedicated service for current and future pensioners'.[22]
The Pension Service consists of local Pension Centres and centrally-based centres, many of latter are based at the Tyneview Park complex in Newcastle upon Tyne. At Tyneview Park the following centres are found:
- Future Pension Centre (FPC) provides state pension forecasts for people approaching retirement age.[23]
- Newcastle Pension Centre (NPC) originally dealt with the London area, the Home Counties, and part of West Midlands. Now the service is virtual so all pension centres deal with all areas of the country.[24]
- Pension Tracing Service (PTS) helps track old pensions and pension schemes.[25]
- International Pension Centre (IPC) deals with all enquiries regarding the payment of state pension, bereavement benefits, incapacity benefits and other such benefits for those living abroad.[26]
Local Pension Centres deal with localised claims for state pension and retirement related benefits. Pension Centres are found all over the country. Benefits dealt with at local Pension Centres include:
- Pension Credit (replaced a former scheme known as 'Minimum Income Guarantee' in October 2003)
- Winter Fuel Payments
- Cold Weather Payments
Disability and Carers Service
[edit]The Disability and Carers Service offers financial support for those who are disabled and their carers, whether in or out of employment. The DCS have offices throughout the country and deal with the following benefits:[27]
- Disability Living Allowance
- Attendance Allowance
- Carer's Allowance
- Vaccine Damage Payment
- Personal Independence Payment
The department has been found to frequently invite disabled people to interviews in buildings which are themselves not accessible to people with disabilities. When the person does not attend the interview they deny the person disability benefits, causing malnutrition and destitution.[28][29] The DWP systematically underpaid disabled claimants who were transferred from Incapacity Benefit to Employment and Support allowance, risking hardship for claimants. A cross party committee of MPs, the Public Accounts Committee accused the DWP of a culture of indifference to claimants.[30]
Since at least 2020 DWP has had a policy of cold-calling vulnerable and disabled people to attempt to pressure them into accept lower benefit claims than they were legally entitled. In July 2021 the DWP agreed to stop after it was threatened with legal action.[31]
Disability Confident scheme
[edit]DWP administers the Disability Confident scheme, which supports employers to employ people with disabilities and to maintain the employment of staff who become disabled. The scheme operates as three levels:
- Level 1: Disability Confident Committed
- Level 2: Disability Confident Employer
- Level 3: Disability Confident Leader.[32]
The scheme is intended to encourage employers to “think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people”, but the DWP lost more disability discrimination cases at employment tribunal than any other employer in Britain between 2016 and 2019.[33]
Tell Us Once
[edit]The DWP introduced the "Tell Us Once" system in 2011 to enable people to use a single interface to inform the government about a change in their personal circumstances. Using ‘Tell Us Once’, departments and agencies like the pensions service, HM Revenue & Customs, the Passport Office and local authorities are informed about a person's change in circumstances in parallel, removing the need for "repeated, unnecessary form-filling".[34] Local authority departments making use of the service include libraries, housing departments, "Blue Badge" services and adult social care.[35]
In most cases, a Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths will notify a person who registers a death about using the service.[36]
DWP transferred to a cloud-based service in 2016 using the government's G-Cloud purchasing process for IT services. The Crown Commercial Service states that "cutting administration costs and reducing the overpayments of benefits – usually because of out-of-date records of people’s personal circumstances – protected the cross-government savings generated by Tell Us Once, estimated at more than £20 million per year. By switching from a physical infrastructure to a cloud solution, DWP has also benefited from cost savings of around 50% on the IT running costs of Tell Us Once".[34]
Former structure
[edit]Before 2008, The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service were two separate executive agencies; however it was decided in April 2008 to merge them into one entity named The Pension, Disability and Carers Service.[37]
Both former agencies kept their corporate branding and provided services under their separate identities. The decision was made due to the two agencies sharing about half of the same customers; as a single agency, the rationalisation of services would provide a better service for customers.[38]
The status of PDCS as an executive agency (and its existence as a merged entity) was removed on 1 October 2011 with the functions being brought back inside the department; and both The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service becoming distinct entities once again.[39] Prior to July 2012 the Child Support Agency was the operating arm of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC).
All are now operated wholly from within the department, with the brand names shut down in 2012.
Current structure (Groups and Directorates)
[edit]Change Group
Corporate Transformation Group
Digital Group
- Core Digital Services Directorate
- Digital ET Directorate
- Digital Services Directorate
- Digital Working Age Directorate
- Technology Services Directorate
Finance Group
People, Capability and Place Group
- People and Capability Directorate
- HR Business Partnering Directorate
- People Services and Resourcing Directorate
- People Strategy Directorate
Policy Group
Service Excellence Group
- Child Maintenance Group Directorate
- Customer Experience Directorate
- Deployment Directorate
- Retirement Services Directorate
- Service Planning and Delivery Directorate
Work and Health Services Group
- Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt Directorate
- Disability Services, Working Age and Move to UC Directorate
- DWP Visiting Directorate
- Universal Credit Operations Directorate
- Work and Health Decision Maker Directorate
Public bodies and estate
[edit]The department's public bodies include:[40]
The department has corporate buildings in London, Leeds, Blackpool, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Newcastle upon Tyne, Warrington, Manchester and Sheffield. Jobcentre Plus, Child Maintenance Service and other departmental services operate through a network of around 650 Jobcentres and service centres across the UK.
Budget
[edit]The total annual budget of the department in 2011–12 was £151.6 billion, representing approximately 28% of total UK Government spending.[41] The department spends a far greater share of national wealth than any other department in Britain, by a wide margin. The department spends an average of £348.9 million with suppliers per month.[42] The government noted in 2013 that DWP's third-party expenditure was characterised by a number of "complex, high-value contracts". DWP contributes to government ambitions to make supply chains more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises, but the government commented that it had yet to secure good insight into the supply chain role of SMEs.[43]
A report of February 2012 found that billions of pounds payable had not been claimed. In 2009–2010 the DWP stated £1.95 billion job-seekers allowance, £2 billion income support and employment and support allowance, £2.4 billion in council tax, £2.8bn in pension credit and £3.1 billion for housing benefit; in total £12.25 billion had not been claimed.[44]
Research
[edit]The department is a major commissioner of external social science research, with the objective of providing the evidence base needed to inform departmental strategy, policy-making and delivery.[45] The department has developed and uses various microsimulation and other models, including the Policy Simulation Model (for appraisal of policy options), Pensim2 (to create projections of pension entitlements up to 2100) and Inform (to produce the department's benefit caseload forecasts). Datasets held include the LLMDB and the Family Resources Survey.
During 2012 the department announced records of the number of people born outside of the United Kingdom ("non-UK nationals") claiming work-related benefits from 2011, using data already collated within the department together with those of HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency[46] (whose duties are now fulfilled by UK Visas and Immigration).
Devolution
[edit]Scotland
[edit]Employment, health and safety, and social security policy are reserved matters of the United Kingdom government. The Scotland Act 2016 devolved specific areas of social security to the Scottish Government to administer and reform. The Scottish Parliament passed the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 to establish a statutory basis of Social Security in Scotland. This created a principled based legislative agenda for Social Security providing for social security to be a human right in Scotland. Most aspects of social security in Scotland remain reserved to the United Kingdom and those will remain administered by the DWP.
The Act established Social Security Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government.
Northern Ireland
[edit]Northern Ireland has parity with Great Britain in three areas:
Policy in these areas is technically devolved but, in practice, follows policy set by Parliament to provide consistency across the United Kingdom.[47] Employment and health and safety policy are fully devolved.
The department's main counterparts in Northern Ireland are:
- the Department for Communities (administers welfare policy)
- the Department for the Economy (oversees the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland)
Controversy
[edit]In August 2015, the department admitted using fictional stories from made-up claimants on leaflets advertising the positive impact of benefit sanctions, following a Freedom of Information request from Welfare Weekly,[48] claiming that they were for "illustrative purposes only"[49][50] and that it was "quite wrong" to pass these off as genuine quotes.[51]
Later that month figures were released which showed that between December 2011 and February 2014, 2,650 people died shortly after their Work Capability Assessment told them that they should be finding work.[52] The DWP had fought hard for the figures not to be released, with chief minister Iain Duncan Smith at one point telling Parliament that they did not exist.[53]
In 2019, a computer systems was introduced but the DWP refused to reveal details. Claimants and their supporters feared it would add to poverty and hardship. Frank Field MP stated in early 2020 that claimants, “will be left at the mercy of online systems that, even now, leave all too many people teetering on the brink of destitution. We’ve already seen, in the gig economy, how workers are managed and sacked, not by people, but by algorithms. Now the welfare state looks set to follow suit, with the ‘social’ human element being stripped away from ‘social security’.[54]
In 2022 the department refused to release data to researchers at Glasgow University that were investigating if benefit sanctions were linked to suicides. This was despite earlier promises by ministers they were supporting the researchers.[55]
See also
[edit]- Benefit fraud
- Pensions Commission
- Office of Manpower Economics
- Pension, Disability and Carers Service
- United Kingdom budget
- Welfare rights
References
[edit]- ^ a b Worlidge, Jack; Aiyar-Majeed, Sameer (11 June 2024) [15 Dec 2017]. "Civil service staff numbers". Institute for Government. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
- ^ "How to understand public sector spending – Annually managed expenditure (AME)". HM Treasury. 29 May 2013. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
Annually managed expenditure, or AME, is more difficult to explain or control as it is spent on programmes which are demand-led – such as welfare, tax credits or public sector pensions. It is spent on items that may be unpredictable or not easily controlled by departments, and are relatively large in comparison to other government departments.
- ^ "How to understand public sector spending – Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL)". HM Treasury. 29 May 2013. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
The government budget that is allocated to and spent by government departments is known as the Departmental Expenditure Limit, or DEL. This amount, and how it is split between government departments, is set at Spending Reviews. Things that departmental budgets can be spent on include the running of the services that they oversee such as schools or hospital, and the everyday cost of resources such as staff. The government controls DEL by deciding how much each department gets.
- ^ Central Government Supply Estimates 2016–17. London: HM Treasury. 2016. p. 138. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ a b HM Government (12 January 2018). "Appointment of Peter Schofield as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions". www.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ "Department for Work and Pensions". GOV.UK. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ "Departmental budgets". Institute for Government. July 2021. Table Total managed expenditure (TME) by department, 2021/22 (planned). Retrieved 1 July 2024. As of 1 July 2024[update] this article is dated 7 November 2017 but the relevant table is dated July 2021.
- ^ E Carmel; T Papadopoulos. "The New governance of Social Security in Britain" (PDF). University of Bath. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ a b Dept. of Social Security. "Resource Accounts 2000–2001". rightsnet.org. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
- ^ European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions Archived 29 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 6 June 2012
- ^ "About – Department for Work and Pensions – GOV.UK". Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
- ^ "Department for Work and Pensions – GOV.UK". Archived from the original on 23 April 2011. Retrieved 4 May 2011.
- ^ "Disabled mum who killed herself failed by benefits agency". BBC News. 23 February 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
- ^ David Rankin (17 November 2015). "Hundreds of extra suicides in 'fit to work' regions, study finds". Times newspapers. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ^ Clark, Lindsay (21 January 2022). "You might want to consider the cost of not upgrading legacy tech, UK's Department for Work and Pensions told". The Register. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
- ^ Clark, Lindsay (22 September 2021). "Thatcher-era ICL mainframe fingered for failure to pay out over £1bn in UK pensions". The Register. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
- ^ Evenstad, Lis (26 March 2021). "DWP completes in-house VME replacement project". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
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- ^ "Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People, Health and Work - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
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- ^ "[ARCHIVED CONTENT] UK Government Web Archive – The National Archives – About DWP – DWP". Dwp.gov.uk. 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
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- ^ "Find a lost pension – GOV.UK". Direct.gov.uk. 11 December 2014. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
- ^ "State Pension if you retire abroad – GOV.UK". Direct.gov.uk. 2 February 2015. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
- ^ "Carers and disability benefits – GOV.UK". Dwp.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 12 July 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
- ^ "The disability system is blocking people like Jaki from their benefits – literally | Frances Ryan". TheGuardian.com. 24 May 2018. Archived from the original on 24 May 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
- ^ "PIP is a disaster for disabled people. At last the full horror is emerging | Frances Ryan". TheGuardian.com. 7 June 2016. Archived from the original on 25 May 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
- ^ Disability claimants owed £340m after DWP blunder, say MPs Archived 18 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian
- ^ "DWP policy of cold-calling disabled people over benefit claims to end". The Guardian. 14 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
- ^ DWP, How to sign up to the Disability Confident employer scheme, updated 25 November 2019, accessed 17 January 2022
- ^ "DWP to pay £500,000 to disabled civil servant it drove to suicide attempt". Disability News Service. 3 November 2022. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
- ^ a b
This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: Crown Commercial Service, G-Cloud cuts cost of DWP's ‘Tell Us Once’ in half, accessed 9 February 2021
- ^ London Borough of Sutton, Deaths and 'Tell us once', accessed 5 February 2021
- ^ Bereavement Advice Centre, The tell us once service, accessed 5 February 2021
- ^ "Pension, Disability and Carers Service Business Plan 2008/09" (PDF). DWP. July 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 February 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via The National Archives.
- ^ "Joining up to improve service" (Press release). DWP. 22 January 2008. Archived from the original on 28 January 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via The National Archives.
- ^ "Government announces organisational changes to Jobcentre Plus and the Pension, Disability and Carers Service" (Press release). DWP. 12 September 2011. Archived from the original on 17 March 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
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- ^ News Distribution Service Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved September 2011
- ^ "Open Spending Data bought to life". www.spendnetwork.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: Cabinet Office, Making Government business more accessible to SMEs: Two Years On, published on 8 August 2013, accessed on 25 September 2024
- ^ BBC 23 February 2012 report Archived 18 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 8 July 2012
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- ^ Department for Works and Pensions – newsroom:20 January 2012 Archived 13 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 9 July 2012
- ^ "Northern Ireland Act 1998". www.legislation.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 23 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ "DWP uses fake claimants in benefit sanctions leaflet". Dial2Donate. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
- ^ Kevin Rawlinson; Frances Perraudin (18 August 2015). "DWP admits inventing quotes from fake 'benefits claimants' for sanctions leaflet". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
- ^ Kevin Rawlinson (21 August 2015). "Fake benefits claimant 'Zac' quoted in other DWP documents". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
- ^ Sparrow, Andrew (24 August 2015). "Use of fake quotes in benefits leaflet 'quite wrong', Iain Duncan Smith admits". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ^ "Mortality Statistics: Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance" (PDF). Department for Work & Pensions. August 2015.
- ^ Stone, Jon (27 August 2015). "Thousands have died soon after being found 'fit to work' by the DWP's benefit tests". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 August 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
- ^ "Benefits system automation could plunge claimants deeper into poverty". The Guardian. 14 October 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
- ^ "DWP criticised over repeated failure to release data on benefit sanctions". The Guardian. 2 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
External links
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