It is important that the Government ensures its compliance programme reflects the changing risks within the labour market, and maintains its progress in ensuring all employers pay the minimum wage.
This Departmental Overview is one of 17 we are producing covering our work on each major government department. It summarises our work on the Department for Work and Pensions during 2013-14.
The Department for Work and Pensions has successfully introduced automatic enrolment to workplace pensions for large and medium-sized employers. Significant risks remain.
The government continues to lose large amounts of money through fraud and error overpayments and many vulnerable people get less support than they are entitled to.
The DWP has simplified the way it administers child maintenance and is approaching expected levels of performance. But overall objectives might be at risk if the number of people using family-based arrangements does not increase.
For the first time since 2009-10, the Social Fund White Paper account has not been qualified on the grounds of the completeness, existence and valuation of the debt balance.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion owing to the material level of fraud and error in benefit expenditure.
It is important that the DWP use the hard lessons it learned from implementing its recent programme of welfare reforms to improve how it manages change and anticipates risk.
Remploy and the Department for Work & Pensions completed the disposal of Remploy factories within a tight timetable and below budget.
The Department for Work & Pensions should have increased its focus on Housing Benefit fraud and error sooner, and is now facing an escalating problem.
The welfare cap is encouraging a greater understanding of spending on some benefits and tax credits across government, but it is important that processes for managing the cap are reliable.
The DWP has not to date achieved value for money in the development of Universal Credit and to do so in future it will need to learn the lessons of past failures.
The Department for Work and Pensions has not yet achieved value for money in managing contracted-out health and disability assessments.
Universal Credit plans were driven by an ambitious timescale, and this led to the adoption of a new approach. The programme suffered from weak management and ineffective control.
In our June 2012 report for the Department for Work and Pensions we recommended ways in which it could strengthen its oversight of the contract.
This NAO impacts case study represents one example where there has been some beneficial change, whether financial or non-financial, resulting from our involvement.
Measures to encourage people to save for retirement are not being managed by Departments with enough coherence or accountability.
BIS will not be well-placed to secure value for money on student loan repayments until it has a more robust strategy to improve collection performance.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has qualified his audit opinion on the regularity of the National Employment Savings Trust Corporation’s 2012-13 Annual Report and Accounts, on the ground that the Corporation incurred fraudulent expenditure in the year.
Review of a sample of the data systems underpinning the input and impact indicators in the Department for Work and Pensions’ Business Plan, Common Areas of Spend and wider management information.
This review was carried out on the 2012-15 Business Plan. Revised Business Plans were issued in June 2013.
The Comptroller and Auditor General’s audit of the DWP’s Social Fund White Paper Account for 2012-13 has revealed substantial improvements in many areas over which he had previously expressed concerns.