Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19

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Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 Annual Report & Accounts 2018-2019 & Accounts Report Annual Annual Report & Accounts 2018-2019 Department For Work & Pensions Work For Department HC 2281 Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 for the year ended 31 March 2019 Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to section 6 (4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Annual Report presented to the House of Commons by command for Her Majesty Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 27 June 2019 HC 2281 © Crown Copyright 2019 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/opengovernment-licence/ version/3 Where we have identifed any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available on our website at: www.gov.uk/offcial-documents Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at Finance Director General’s Offce 5th Floor, Caxton House 6-12 Tothill Street London SW1H 9NA ISBN 978-1-5286-1447-4 CCS0519178452 06/19 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fbre content minimum Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Offce Contents 3 Contents Performance report Secretary of State’s foreword 6 Permanent Secretary’s overview 8 Performance overview 12 Performance analysis 21 Accountability report Corporate governance report 96 Lead Non-executive member’s report 96 Governance statement 110 Remuneration and staff report 128 Parliamentary accountability and audit report 145 Statement of Parliamentary Supply 147 Core Tables 156 Parliamentary Accountability Disclosures 161 Certifcate of the Comptroller and Auditor General 164 Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General 168 Financial report Financial Statements 184 Notes to the Accounts 190 Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 Performance report 6 Performance report The Right Honourable Amber Rudd MP Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Secretary of State’s foreword I was delighted to be appointed Secretary Credit, and made some important changes of State for the Department for Work and to improve the system and support we offer, Pensions in November. DWP is the largest public including: service government Department, with the • extending opening hours including piloting biggest annual budget. Its diversity of benefts, opening on Saturdays payments and pensions support people who are in work, out of work or beyond working age • piloting the provision of more frequent - touching every citizen at some point in their payments for new claimants lives. • improving how the Flexible Support Fund We are building a modern, fair and affordable can be used with child care costs welfare system that makes a positive difference Thank you to all colleagues who worked to peoples’ lives. to deliver this - I commend the level of Universal Credit is based on three fundamental commitment I have witnessed. principles: This new beneft is one element that • ensuring those who can work, should; and underpins our strong labour market story, with that those who cannot are protected from employment reaching an all-time high of 76.1% poverty this year. Indeed, since 2010, the labour market has gone from strength to strength; over 3.5 • making sure work always pays more than million more people are in work – that’s over being on benefts 1,000 more each and every day, for almost a • fairness - to both the recipients of benefts, decade. and the taxpayers whose contributions The Department is working to enable disabled support them people to achieve their full potential, and This vital reform is delivering a welfare system lead positive, fulflling lives. My ambition is to that helps people into work, giving them signifcantly improve how we support these fnancial independence, and the choices and citizens and those with health conditions. The opportunities to pursue their ambitions in number of disabled people in employment rose life. In the past year we have successfully by 947,000 between 2014 and 2019. We are completed the nationwide roll-out of Universal now working on a comprehensive 10 year plan to remove barriers to work and create more opportunities for this group. Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 Performance report 7 Over the past year we have also continued to children, strengthen our enforcement powers, make improvements to PIP processes and from and deal with the historic arrears that built up April 2019, we will no longer undertake regular under the previous system. reviews of PIP awards for claimant at or above We continue to build a Department ft for the State Pension age unless they tell us their future by embracing digital technology to needs have changed. provide more accessible and effcient services We are focusing on reforming the pensions for our customers. Our Digital Transformation system to meet the customer’s changing has improved the experiences of people who needs, creating a sustainable system that rely on our services, making us more effective refects modern life and supports saving and and effcient, and enabling us to personalise personal responsibility for income in retirement. delivery for customers and claimants. Automatic enrolment has transformed Since joining the Department I have met pension saving, signifcantly increasing pension frontline colleagues and Work Coaches in many participation and normalising retirement parts of the country. I would like to commend saving for most people in work. Over 10 million them for the incredible work they do, every workers have now been automatically enrolled single day, to ensure claimants receive the into a workplace pension, with over 1.4 million payments and support that they need. employers meeting their duties under the I know there is more to be done over the scheme. This is an immense achievement, of next year. I will be taking forward our welfare which the Department can be rightly proud. agenda, looking at how we can better serve all In the family support portfolio, we have our claimants and do more to support the most successfully delivered wide-scale reforms vulnerable. to child maintenance by replacing the Child Support Agency. The Child Maintenance Service is a modern system that encourages separated parents to work together to provide fnancial support for their child’s living costs. This year we introduced new legislation under our Child Maintenance Compliance and Arrears Strategy. This will improve parental compliance, close loopholes so that more money reaches Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 8 Performance report Peter Schofeld CB Permanent Secretary Permanent Secretary’s overview This has been a year in which we have achieved Above all, we have worked to deliver good some important milestones, helping change services every day to some 20 million citizens. lives for good all across the country. We have maintained high standards in delivery across all our major product lines, and we have As of December 2018, Universal Credit is in met key milestones on our Legal Entitlement every jobcentre across the country. Just under Administrative Exercises (LEAP) to tackle past 2 million people now receive Universal Credit, underpayments on ESA and PIP. with around 86% of claimants receiving their full entitlement on time in the frst assessment These achievements have been delivered period. alongside signifcant changes in the way we work, and with a reducing budget for the cost More people are in work than ever before, with of running the Department. the employment rate reaching a record 76%. Youth unemployment reached a record low In 2018-19 we continued to transform our in November 2018. And 54,000 people have Department, as we have focused on improving started on the Work and Health Programme, the quality of our services within the resources which provides a personalised support to available, we: people facing barriers to employment. • processed 78% of new claims within Over 10 million people are now saving for planned timescales and achieved customer retirement by being auto-enrolled on a satisfaction of 81% workplace pension. And we have worked with • processed Universal Credit (UC) faster - UC employers to get people ready for the rise in Full Service claimants for households with automatic enrolment savings rates from April new claims receiving full payment on time 2019. stood at around 86% in February 2019 an In December 2018, we closed the last Child increase from 78% in February 2018 Support Agency cases. • reduced our annual running costs by £3.1 In addition to these milestones, we have billion since 2010 contributed to cross Civil Service work on EU Exit, including preparations for a no-deal exit. We have provided staff and other support to departments more affected by exiting the European Union than us. Department for Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 Performance report 9 • continued to recognise the vital importance Forward look of maintaining a healthy, safe, resilient, The year ahead sees our funding for running engaged and motivated workforce: we have the Department fall by 5% compared to the trained 965 Mental Health First Aiders as outturn in 2018-19. Our focus is to do more to of March 2019 and we received the REBA deliver great outcomes more effciently which Employee Wellbeing Award is why we have restructured the organisation • delivered commercial savings of around from April 2019. The new structure will build £352 million in 2018-19 (£265 million cash multi-functional, multi-disciplinary teams that savings and £87 million effciency savings) will work to deliver shared outcomes for our customers. As we do so, we need to make • launched Find a Job, which replaced Universal Jobmatch in July 2018, which further progress implementing our Fraud and has already supported 24.9 million job Error Strategy.
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