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27 Feb 2006 : Column 248W—continued
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the most common medical reasons why incapacity benefit claimants in Gravesham constituency are in receipt of the benefit. [43265]
Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the table.
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
2. Claimant" figures include all IB and SDA, including IB credits only cases.
3. All diagnoses are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, published by the World Health Organisation.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate, Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data.
John Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many women in receipt of incapacity benefit in Easington constituency are aged (a) under 20, (b) 20 to 24, (c) 25 to 29, (d) 30 to 34, (e) 35 to 39, (f) 40 to 44, (g) 45 to 49, (h) 50 to 54, (i) 55 to 59 and (j) 60 to 64 years. [48415]
27 Feb 2006 : Column 249W
Mrs. McGuire: The available information is in the table.
—"=nil or negligible.
Notes:
1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Totals may not sum due to rounding.
2. 'Claimant" figures include all IB and SDA, including IB credits only cases.
Source:
DWP Information Directorate, Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data.
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether those placed on the holding benefit referred to in the Green Paper on reform of incapacity benefit are expected to be entitled to free prescriptions. [49078]
Margaret Hodge: Our policy intention is that people who qualify for the income-related element of the employment and support allowance would qualify for free NHS prescriptions as someone in receipt of income support would now. However, the final decision on this matter rests with the Department of Health, and the Scottish and Welsh Executives.
IT Projects
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the information technology projects being undertaken by his Department and associated agencies; what the (a) start date, (b) planned completion date, (c) current expected completion date, (d) planned cost and (e) current estimated cost is of each; and if he will make a statement. [18859]
Mr. Timms:
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not differentiate between information technology projects and other types of projects such as business change. Currently, the Department has in excess of 100 individual projects that embrace both information technology and business change. The entire programme of work is complex and the Department utilises considerable expertise to manage and develop strategies for maximising the success of technology projects. We also make use of lessons learned from previous project implementations to maximise the effectiveness of project delivery.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 250W
The following tables provide the information on the Department's major projects based predominantly on IT change.
| Project | Start date | Planned end date | Current expected completion date | Current forecast (cost £ million)(70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Management System | October 2001 | November 2005 | November 2005 | 250 |
Purpose:
This system allows the information supplied by working age customers to be gathered electronically by staff, improving efficiency and customer service.
| Project | Start date | Planned end date | Current expected completion date | Current forecast (cost £ million)(70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benefit Processing Replacement Programme (Watch 2) | December 2003 | October 2006 | TBA | TBA |
Purpose:
The programme enables modernised benefit processing, effective fraud management and improved service to employers. It provides the strategic IT platform for the Department providing the foundation for future policy initiatives.
As part of the programme's governance it attended a agate on Monday 6 February 2006. At this gate a number of options for progressing the programme were presented. The gate reserved its decision and asked the programme to:
1. Return to a gate in four months time having considered the impact of the Welfare Reform Green Paper; and
2. Continue its investment programme until the next gate by progressing work in areas common to all options presented.
Agreed forecast costs and completion date is dependant upon this decision.
Purpose:
The programme will transform the way that the Pension Service delivers its business. This will bring significant improvements and convenience for pensioners as well as benefits to the taxpayer in terms of efficiencies. The original programme was planned to be delivered in five waves of change (learning lessons from other programmes of change) between 2002 and 2006. The first phase of the first wave of change involving new state pension claim processes was deployed in three pension centres between August and November 2005. The next phase involving all pension centres for new customer applications for state pension and pension credit will commence July 2006.
Following re-planning of the delivery of the programme it was agreed that the three latter waves of change would be delivered more affordably over a longer period. The first two more significant waves will be completed by March 2008. The final waves 3–5 will be completed by 2010.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 251W
| Project | Start date | Planned end date | Current expected completion date | Current forecast (cost £ million)(70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Information System | July 2003 | July 2007 | July 2007 | 83 |
Purpose:
This project will deliver a database of key citizen information to be shared across DWP. The database will complement information currently available in the Department's key customer information systems, ie Personal Details Computer System and Departmental Central Index, and become their replacement.
| Project | Start date | Planned end date | Current expected completion date | Current forecast (cost £ million)(70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resource Management | April 2001 | September 2006 | September 2006 | 169 |
Purpose:
Will provide modernised HR, financial and procurement functions for the Department. Automated data and processes to save time and resources. The new processes are currently being tested.
| Project | Start date | Planned end date | Current expected completion date | Current forecast (cost £ million)(70) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debt Management | November 2000 | April 2005 | February 2006 | 106 |
Purpose:
To bring increased focus to the management, recovery and accounting of benefit debt owed to the department. Negotiations with developers and suppliers of the key system, debt manager, took longer than first planned and this impacted the training and data migration work. These changes were approved through standard project governance at a project gate. However, by the end of February 2006, the process of migrating work into debt centres will be complete. Despite the 10 month delay, the Debt Programme will be delivered over £10 million (9.5 per cent.) under the original financial forecast.
Purpose:
New payment processing IT functionality is required to support the DWP to process payments for new entitlement management and financial scheduling systems.
1 The current forecast cost column is the latest forecast of the total cost of the project implementation.
1. Expenditure on projects is formally approved by the Departments governance process and authorised through review gates. These reviews ensure that projects are meeting the standards we expect (including business change, technical and commercial criteria) before authority to progress to the next stage of their development. It is only when the reviews are complete that the next stage funding is authorised.
2. Project details may alter as they pass through the project lifecycle. This may mean that the scope of a project is changed as a result of the development of a project's plans. Changes in scope may shorten the time for completion of a project or lengthen it. It may also increase or decrease the total costs of a project or change the year in which expenditure is planned to be incurred. All such changes are subject to scrutiny by the Department's governance
- processes and requires appropriate approvals before being adopted within the project's plans. This is more likely early in a projects lifecycle however projects later in the cycle are not immune to these changes. All of these issues are in the ordinary course for a project, but especially so for large IT based projects.
3. Additionally the Department had a Private Finance Initiative contract for the provision of IT services to the Child Support Agency worth approximately £456 million over 10 years. This contract commenced in August 2000 with a ten year duration to August 2010. Under a general realignment of Departmental contracts announced in August 2005, EDS will complete the system as currently specified, including correcting all agreed defects. The revised contract still has a completion date of August 2010 and the department expects to save around £65 million (net present value basis) in Child Support information technology costs over the remaining period of the deal with EDS.
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