Conveniently for Iain Duncan Smith, this year’s DWP accounts were not published to coincide with his appearance at the work and pensions select committee yesterday; some may say it’s now clear why.
In the accounts, which have now been released, the National Audit Office states that Universal Credit has “not achieved value for money”, noting that the DWP has written off £40.1m of assets developed for the programme “as it will never use them” and that “it also now expects to write down £91.0 million of the remaining assets to nil value by March 2018, due to the considerable reduction in their expected useful life.” The head of the NAO comments: “While this is the appropriate accounting treatment, it should not detract from the underlying issue that the Department has spent £91.0 million on assets that will only support a limited service for 5 years, with clear consequences for public value.” In addition, it notes that there were “considerable weaknesses” in the department’s financial controls over Universal Credit and that the “size and complexity” of the programme “stretched the Department’s capacity and capability”.
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