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Dept of Social Security;Social Security Benefits Agency

Answer

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 31 October 2000, Official Report, columns 346-47W, what conclusions the Benefits Agency internal audit came to regarding the role of EDS in the duplication of income support payments on 17 and 18 January. [138338] Mr. Rooker: The administration of benefit payments is a matter for Alexis Cleveland the Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. She will write to my right hon. Friend. Letter from Alexis Cleveland to Mr. Frank Field, dated 17 November 2000: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to respond to your Parliamentary Question asking what conclusions the Benefits Agency (BA) internal audit came to regarding the role of EDS in the duplication of income support payments on 17th and 18th January. The report concluded that responsibility for the error lay with DSS Information Technology Services Group (ITSG), Benefits Agency (BA) and EDS. The report did not apportion levels of responsibility; it identified errors on the part of all parties. The report concluded: `Following a technical problem, incorrect (re-start) action by ITSG led to the creation of the £10.5m Income Support file with an incomplete number of records. The EDS automated system to transfer files to BACS had limited in-built validation and reconciliation checks and this allowed the £10.5m file to be forwarded to BACS . . . Reconciliation checks undertaken within the BA identified a problem but the incident handling and escalation procedures were inadequate'. As mentioned in my response on 30 October, Official Report columns 346-347, the report contained a series of thirteen recommendations. EDS is a key stakeholder, working with DSS in the programme of activity to implement these recommendations, which include improvements to validation and reconciliation checks to prevent a reoccurrence of the original incident. My previous response provided more detail. I hope this additional information is helpful.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

138338; 356 c804W

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Audit Software Overpayments Social security benefits Automated credit transfer

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk