Ministers have admitted that there is no IT system in place to deal with benefit cap calculations.
"DWP minister Mark Hoban said in his written answer that up to 112 staff will be employed in this financial year to check data of households affected by the benefit cap manually, at a cost of £1.3m. He wrote: “This process will remain in place until such time that an automated solution is developed and introduced.”
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many staff are involved in manually checking the IT system for the benefit cap; [161722]
(2) what the cost is of employing staff to manually check the IT system for the benefit cap; [161723]
(3) what manual processes exist for checking the IT system for the benefit cap; and for how long this manual process will be in place. [161724]
Mr Hoban: Data taken from DWP, HMRC and LA systems, which is used to identify households potentially affected by the benefit cap, is subject to a manual check before data is sent to local authorities for capping to take place. This check is to verify the benefits paid to a household and to check whether any exemptions should apply. This process will remain in place until such time that an automated solution is developed and introduced.
During 2013-14, on current plans the following numbers of staff will be involved in interrogating all relevant existing departmental IT systems for benefit cap:
| Number | |
|
April |
30 |
|
May |
30 |
|
June |
30 |
|
July |
112 |
|
August |
112 |
|
September |
112 |
|
October |
28 |
|
November |
28 |
|
December |
28 |
|
January |
28 |
|
February |
28 |
|
March |
28 |
The staff cost to carry out that manual check in 2013-14 is currently expected to be around £1.3 million.
Source; Hansard