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.
Remploy and the Department for Work & Pensions completed the disposal of Remploy factories within a tight timetable and below budget.
The provision of adequate adult social care poses a significant public service challenge. Demand for care is rising while public spending is falling.
The DWP has had to delay the Personal Independence Payment programme’s roll-out and reduce expected savings during this Spending Review period.
Government is owed a large amount of money but has no overall view of its debt reduction objectives nor of the financial risk that the debt poses.
The NAO welcomes the progress being made by the Northern Ireland Social Security Agency in reducing levels of fraud and error in benefit payments.
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.
Two government programmes aiming to help families with multiple challenges, such as unemployment and anti-social behaviour, are starting to provide benefits but considerable challenges remain.
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.
MyCSP has the potential to be good value for money with a projected saving of 50 per cent on costs, but the Cabinet Office and MyCSP still face many large challenges in transforming the service.
