JGP News

Department for Work and Pensions minister James Plaskitt has launched a comprehensive initiative designed to save the benefits system £1 billion over the next six years.

Entitled ‘Getting Welfare Right: Tackling Error in the Benefits System’, it is the first such strategy of its scope and outlines plans to identify and correct extant flaws in the system, prevent new problems arising and reduce the number of incorrect benefit payments.

Pension Credit payments will be reviewed to iron out existing errors, the overarching administration process will be simplified and IT systems will be updated to encourage better data-sharing.

“The vast majority of benefits are paid on time and to the right person,” said Mr Plaskitt. “But we want to pay the correct amount of benefit to all our customers every time.

“We have had great success in reducing benefit fraud. We now intend to apply the same drive and determination to reduce customer and official error,” he continued.

“Our strategy for reducing error is based on prevention, compliance and correction: preventing new error, ensuring customers and staff comply with benefit rules and identifying and correcting existing errors.”

As part of the initiative, a customer error pilot entitled ‘Something to Declare’ will be launched in Cambridgeshire.

Reviewing payment systems and eradicating errors has already worked in other departments. Since mid-2006, teams at Jobcentre Plus offices have succeeded in identifying and correcting overpayments in the region of £745,000 per week.

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