NIAO says dole wouldbe able to cut staff

A new report by the Auditor General says the introduction of Universal Credit (UC) here would allow the Social Security Agency (SSA) reduce staff numbers, close offices and save on the £200m it costs to administer the dole here each year.

‘Modernising benefit delivery in the Social Security Agency’s local office network,’ which was published by the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) on Tuesday (November 11) envisages the dole going online under a new UC regime, if and when it is implemented here.

In 2012-13 the Social Security Agency (SSA) spent £196 million on benefits administration.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, Kieran Donnelly, said: “Whilst the SSA has implemented a number of Welfare Reform and Modernisation Programmes in recent years, the primary focus of these have been meeting the requirements of legislative and policy change, not the efficiency of benefit administration. In the future, it is important that efficiency considerations are to the fore.”

Social security benefits paid to claimants here aren’t funded from the block grant. Therefore changes to the demand for benefits do not directly impact on the funding available for other services. The cost of processing these benefits is funded from the block grant. Any reduction in these costs would generate savings which could be used to improve other services.

Amongst the report’s key findings are that the Jobs and Benefits Office Project (2001-2011) - a co-location for 27 Social Security Offices (from the SSA) and 27 Jobcentres (from the Department for Employment and Learning) - cost £60 million, £17 million more than the £43 million originally estimated to complete an intended 35 Offices.

Meanwhile, the Customer First Project (2006-2013) consolidated back office benefit processing into 16 Benefit Processing Centres but fewer processing centres could have enabled further administrative efficiencies to be achieved through greater economies of scale.

The report also considers how the implementation of UC, would offer SSA a significant opportunity to focus on improving the efficiency of their benefit administration and to make significant savings in the administration of benefits over the longer term.

These savings will arise from a reduction in the numbers of staff required to administer UC.

The introduction of UC would also offer SSA the opportunity to reassess the size of its office network. The use of online and telephony delivery models for UC may allow SSA to reduce the size of the estate by co-locating offices with other public services or relocating to smaller offices, whilst still maintaining the same number of offices for claimants who need to attend.

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