Universal Credit welfare overhaul lambasted by MPs
The implementation of the government's flagship welfare reform has been "extraordinarily poor", with much of the £425m expenditure to date likely to be written off, MPs have said.
Robert Devereux recently defended the handling of the project but admitted some shortcomings
The Commons Public Accounts Committee said oversight of the Universal Credit scheme had been "alarmingly weak".
Warning signs were missed and there was a "fortress culture" among officials, it claimed.
Ministers said there was new leadership and controls had been strengthened.
The criticisms by the cross-party committee echo those by the National Audit Office - which said in September that management of the £2.3bn project had been weak and financial controls had been inefficient.
Ministers have insisted the plan to consolidate six separate means-tested working age benefits into a single payment - designed to increase incentives for work - is back on track following a "reset" of the programme at the start of the year.
But the committee said the project had been beset by a string of problems and still faced considerable challenges if it was to achieve its long-term objectives.
It suggested much of the £425m spent up to April, about a third of which has been on computer software and other IT systems, was unlikely to have any worth in future and its value would have to be written off.
'Ad hoc reviews'
Controls over suppliers, it added, had been largely absent with, in some cases, multi-million pound orders being signed off by secretarial staff.
From the outset of the project in 2011, it said, senior civil servants had "failed to grasp the enormity" of the task they had been set by ministers, did not monitor progress adequately and had not intervened when issues arose.
A lack of day-to-day control meant that top officials only became aware of difficulties through "ad hoc reviews" and as problems mounted, those in charge of the scheme had become "isolated and defensive".
"Universal Credit is the Department for Work and Pensions' single biggest programme and enjoys cross-party support yet its implementation has been extraordinarily poor," Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the body, said.
"The failure to develop a comprehensive plan has led to extensive delay and the waste of a yet to be determined amount of public money.
"Pressure to deliver a programme of this magnitude within such an ambitious timescale created a fortress culture where only good news was reported and problems were denied."
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has insisted that Universal Credit can still be rolled out to all existing and new claimants as planned by 2017 - a view endorsed by officials from the Major Projects Authority who were drafted in earlier this year to run the rule over the scheme.
2017 deadline
But the committee said the pilots conducted to date had been unsatisfactory and a target to enrol 184,000 new claimants onto the single benefit by next April would be missed.
"The department will have to speed up the later stages of the programme if it is to meet the 2017 completion date but that will pose new risks," Mrs Hodge added, urging the government not to throw "good money after bad".
"We believe strongly that meeting any specific timetable from now on is less important than delivering the programme successfully."
Appearing before the committee in September, the top civil servant at the Department for Work and Pensions rejected suggestions the Universal Credit was launched "without a plan".
Robert Devereux said the strategy behind the policy was "very clear" and the "best available" people were running it.
But he accepted there had been a "let's punch through" mentality among the original management team and its leadership was changed once it became clear that a different, more reflective approach was needed.
'Comprehensive action'
Howard Shiplee, who took over the running of the project in May, has admitted mistakes were made but said real progress was now happening and much of the existing IT systems could be used.
Responding to the committee's report, the Department for Work and Pensions said Universal Credit was a "vital" reform which would ultimately bring £38bn in benefits to society by helping people into work and reducing fraud.
"This report doesn't take into account our new leadership team, or our progress on delivery," it said. "We have already taken comprehensive action including strengthening governance, supplier management and financial controls."
It said it did not accept "the write-off figure quoted by the committee" and expected it to be substantially less.
A spokesman for Mr Duncan Smith said he had "every confidence" in the team now running the programme, including Mr Devereux - whose position some newspapers have suggested is under threat.
"Both the National Audit Office and the public accounts committee acknowledged a fortress mentality within the Universal Credit programme," he said.
"Iain was clear back in the summer about how he and the permanent secretary took action to fix those problems."
Labour said the report was "another nail in the coffin of the government's promise to deliver Universal Credit on time and on budget", adding that "families facing a cost of living crisis need welfare reform they can trust"
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