BENEFITS and Universal Credit claims are to be decided by robots – and the poorest claimants could suffer the most if anything goes wrong, warns one charity.
The Department for Work and Penions (DWP) has heightened its drive for a digital benefits system by developing 100 "welfare robots", reports The Guardian.
Around £8million a year is being ploughed into developing automated robots that will help process Universal Credit and welfare claims.
The technology will also help to dig out fraud by using artificial intelligence to determine whether claims related to childcare and housing costs are true.
In a blog post, Shaun Williamson, who's working on the DWP's digital project, says that introducing chatbots, that would work in the same way as Siri and Alexa, would reduce calls about routine enquiries by a fifth.
The DWP believes that an automated system will allow claims to be made quicker, cheaper and more accurately.
What to do if you have problems claiming Universal Credit
IF you're experiencing trouble applying for your Universal Credit, or the payments just don't cover costs, here are your options:
Apply for an advance – Claimants are able to get some cash within five days rather than waiting weeks for their first payment. But it's a loan which means the repayments will be automatically deducted from your future Universal Credit payout.
Alternative Payment Arrangements– If you're falling behind on rent, you or your landlord may be able to apply for an APA which will get your payment sent directly to your landlord. You might also be able to change your payments to get them more frequently, or you can split the payments if you're part of a couple.
Budgeting Advance – You may be able to get help from the government to help with emergency household costs of up to £348 if you're single, £464 if you're part of a couple or £812 if you have children. These are only in cases like your cooker breaking down or for help getting a job. You'll have to repay the advance through your regular Universal Credit payments. You'll still have to repay the loan, even if you stop claiming for Universal Credit.
Cut your Council Tax – You might be able to get a discount on your Council Tax or be entitled to Discretionary Housing Payments if your payments aren't enough to cover your rent.
Foodbanks – If you're really hard up and struggling to buy food and toiletries, you can find your local foodbank who will provide you with help for free. You can find your nearest one on the Trussel Trust website.
Charities such as MIND and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have previously warned that vulnerable people will struggle with making online applications and could even see their benefits cut as a result.
And debt charity Turn2Us is now warning that the worst-off claimants could be hit the hardest by the system.
"There is nothing wrong with using digital methods to improve the efficiency of simple transactions," David Samson, welfare benefit specialist at Turn2Us told The Sun.
"However, when the service provided needs to be human-centric, compassionate and bespoke, this automation can quickly turn into some sort of dystopian nightmare if not done with due diligence.
"We are concerned about the news of automation in the DWP and urge them to remember that the social security safety net must take a cautious and measured approach to rolling out this new technology – because if it does go wrong it will no doubt be the most vulnerable who will suffer the most."
The Sun wants to Make Universal Credit Work
UNIVERSAL Credit replaces six benefits with a single monthly payment.
One million people are already receiving it and by the time the system is fully rolled out in 2023, nearly 7 million will be on it.
But there are big problems with the flagship new system – it takes 5 weeks to get the first payment and it could leave some families worse off by thousands of pounds a year.
And while working families can claim back up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, they must find the money to pay for childcare upfront – we’ve heard of families waiting up to 6 months for the money.
Working parents across the country told us they’ve been unable to take on more hours – or have even turned down better paid jobs or more hours because of the amount they get their benefits cut.
It’s time to Make Universal Credit work. We want the Government to:
- Get paid faster: The Government must slash the time Brits wait for their first Universal Credit payments from five to two weeks, helping stop 7 million from being pushed into debt.
- Keep more of what you earn: The work allowance should be increased and the taper rate should be slashed from 63p to 50p, helping at least 4 million families.
- Don’t get punished for having a family: Parents should get the 85 per cent of the money they can claim for childcare upfront instead of being paid in arrears.
Together, these changes will help Make Universal Credit Work.
Join our Universal Credit Facebook group or email [email protected] to share your story.
Since last year, the DWP has recruited nearly 1,000 tech staff to develop the systems and build a "virtual workforce".
It is also outsourcing to tech giants including IBM, Tata consultancy, Capgemini and UiPath, who's technology is already used by US supermarket giant Walmart and car manufacturers Toyota.
The intelligent system will "learn" as it checks claims for fraud and tweak the way it makes decisions with minimum human interventions.
The DWP is already using 16 bots that have been designed to take over from human workers to deal with claimants and process applications.
It's also building its own private technology company called Benefits and Pensions Digital Technology Services Ltd.
It's already recruited 400 staff in the first four years of the month, compared to the 520 recruited by the DWP in the same time frame.
Much of the work at the tech company's base in Newcastle is being kept a secret, although one anonymous worker told The Guardian that it already has "ways of creating a digital image of somebody".
In 2017, the DWP set up its own hub to work on robotics called The Intelligent Automation Garage.
So far, it has developed programmes to order documents for people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP), and built a chatbot to use internally supporting colleagues contacting their security help desk.
Digital teams have also previously worked on developing web chats between claimants and benefit advisers.
The digital drive is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds – the DWP's digital budget has risen by 17 per cent to £1.1billion in the past year alone.
A DWP spokesperson insists that it has staff available to help people access the computers in Jobcentres and that is has invested £39million in support services provided by Citizen's Advice that can be accessed from home.
They said: "We are committed to providing a compassionate safety net, on which we spend £95billion, and creating a digital service that suits the way most people use technology.
"Automation means we are improving accuracy, speeding up our service and freeing up colleagues’ time so they can support the people who need it most."
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