Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Monday, 16 July 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 18 July 2007. It was answered by Caroline Flint (Labour) on Monday, 17 September 2007 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Social Security Benefits: ICT

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what changes (a) have been made and (b) are planned to IT systems in order to enable the delivery of the employment and support allowance.

Answer: No changes have made to IT systems to enable the Delivery of employment and support allowance at this stage.The Employment and Support Allowance IS/IT Feasibility Study recommended a technical solution for the employment and support allowance which builds on existing successful IS/IT developments within DWP. This is mainly made up of a:"Siebel front-end based on the re-use of Pensions Transformation Project Customer Account Management.""New legacy mainframe based service built on an extension of jobseeker's allowance payment system for payment and award functionality."This is the bulk of the IS/IT change required for employment and support allowance (ESA) introduction.However, like any major welfare reform the ESA programme will have wide-ranging impacts throughout DWP, other Government Departments and local authorities. To date, the programme has identified and engaged a range of internal and external stakeholders and have IS/IT plans at various stages of maturity.

Secondary information