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Welfare and benefits

 

The welfare and benefits sector impacts on just about every UK citizen at some point in their lifetime.  Be it initiatives to end child poverty, programmes to support people in difficult economic times or securing pensions in later life, welfare and benefits has relevance to all.  The combined spending on welfare and benefits amounts to over one quarter of all UK government spending.  Most is administered through the Department for Work and Pensions, although others such as HM Revenue and Customs for Tax Credits are also involved.

 
Welfare and benefit entitlements have evolved over many years influenced by many administrations with varying objectives.  The end result is a complex arrangement of multiple benefits, often inter related, which are notoriously hard to administer accurately and equally challenging to audit.  The National Audit Office's work in this sector focuses heavily on that challenge through our work auditing the annual financial statements of the Department for Work and Pensions and associated bodies.
 
We also undertake a range of value for money examinations across the sector, which as well as complementing the financial audit work on programme spending also look at more wide ranging issues from social inclusion to basic project management with welfare and benefit administering bodies.      

Feature

Handling Customer Complaints

 

In July 2008 we published a report on how customer complaints are handled.  The report covers complaints made to Jobcentre Plus, The Pension Service and the Disability and Carers Service (the latter two Agencies merged in April 2008 to form the Pension, Disability and Carers Service).

 

Read full article: Handling Customer Complaints