In the news

FEBRUARY 2021

DWP fails to keep up

At first it was anecdotal. Now evidence is mounting that the Department of Work & Pensions is failing to manage its own workload as a result of austerity cuts, repeated lockdowns and the longer term cumulative effects of the pandemic.

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While the logistics of a pandemic would challenge most governments (New Zealand notwithstanding), many of the DWP's current issues are of their own making as they now 'scramble' to reverse the 28% staff cuts they  made over the past 10 years.  A recent parliamentary debate on the Child Maintenance Service led by SNP MP Marion Fellows and has highlighted the effect of these cuts and the work of organisations like Gingerbread to overcome them.

Additional issues for DWP staff include the spread of the virus among those who are not working from home and the slow pace at which home working has been facilitated for them during lockdown. According to the Public & Commercial Services Union, although 90% of civil servants have home working facilities, this is not equally true for DWP staff. In response, the DWP has said it is now delivering up to 2500 pieces of IT equipment a week to staff who are homeworking.

The Department has countered figures showing that 4000 calls to its Debt Management line went unanswered in the first two weeks of January with the confirmation of plans to deploy 450 additional staff to meet its own targets. However, DWP Permanent Secretary Peter Schofield has noted in a recent letter to the Work & Pensions Committee Chair that the service provided on the PIP, State Pension, Attendance Allowance and CMS phone lines still remains 'below the expected standards'.

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Work & Pensions Committee Chair, Stephen Timms MP

More pressure to retain the Universal Credit uplift

There is now overwhelming pressure for the government to change its published plan to discontinue the £20 uplift to Universal Credit from April.

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The pressure comes most recently from a report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty who, following a call for evidence in December,  have joined many other voices advising the government that it is the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in society who will lose out most if or when the uplift is removed. 

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The APPG report follows a non-binding Opposition Day vote in favour of the uplift in parliament and a string of recent warnings about the potential effects of losing the uplift from the Children's Commissioner, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Resolution Foundation, the Mental Health & Income Commission and almost everybody else.

Not all PIP claims extended

According to DWP MInister Justin Tomlinson, the previously announced automatic COVID-related extension of PIP claims due for renewal between March 2020 and Jan 2021 will not now take place for those who have already had a reviewed decision since July 2020 or if any action on their case is currently pending.