Benefit payments computer system shelved

A major computer system used to process benefits payments has been shelved, the Government confirmed today.

The system, known as the Benefits Reprocessing Payments Programme, was "refocused" in the light of "concerns about the progress" of the programme, the Department for Work and Pensions said.

The BBC Radio 4 Today programme reported that it had cost £141 million in the three years since it had been first set up and had been designed to save around £60 million for the taxpayer.

It was decided to drop the programme in February, the Today show added.

A spokesman for the DWP said: "In line with best practice and in the light of concerns about the progress of this programme, BPRP was recently reviewed.

"As a result, the programme has been refocused to concentrate on the delivery of the new Employment Support Allowance announced in January of this year in the Green Paper A New Deal For Welfare: Empowering People To Work.

"The previous programme has now been formally closed, although a number of individual projects within it are being taken forward."

The main trade union representing workers at the DWP called for a full inquiry into what had happened to the computer system.

Public and Commercial Services Union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This is a huge waste of taxpayers' money and yet more evidence that the Government's approach to cutting jobs in the department is flawed.

"It is yet another IT disaster following recent problems with the Child Support Agency computer system.

"This system is supposed to make things more efficient."