When it comes to failing government projects, Universal Credit is in a class of its own

The revelation that Iain Duncan Smith managed to get a special category invented to describe the status of Universal Credit in a government report on Major Projects that was conveniently released on the day of the local election results is the latest ludicrous twist in the sorry tale of the Tory-led government’s flagship welfare reform.

In 21010 David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith held up Universal Credit as their grand plan for making work pay and getting the welfare bill under control. Labour has always supported the principle of simplifying and integrating benefits where possible. But we warned repeatedly that the government had under-estimated the scale and complexity of the challenge and did not seem to be in command of the detail required to deliver. As a result millions of taxpayers money have been wasted because of the government’s ineptitude.

But Iain Duncan Smith, evidently determined that Universal Credit would be his legacy, dismissed our concerns, and insisted that the project would meet its deadlines of first national rollout from October 2013 and final replacement of Housing Benefit, Child and Working Tax Credits, Income Support, and non-contributory Jobseekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance by 2017.

This began a pattern of distraction and denial from the Department of Work and Pensions that the Public Accounts Committee described as a “culture of good news” and that became increasingly desperate as evidence that the project was floundering – and reports of chaos and conflict behind the scenes – became harder to ignore.

Last weekend there were further worrying reports about problems in the pilot areas where Universal Credit is being introduced, with claims of administrative errors and computer glitches leading to increases in personal debt, rent arrears and evictions. Yet even now the government is resisting the release of key documents about the implementation of Universal Credit despite an information tribunal ruling that there was a “strong public interest” in their publication. In other words they want to hide the extent of the problem.

What we do know is that, four years after the government embarked on this exercise, £612million of taxpayers money has been spent on the project, including £40million that the government has had to admit has been completely wasted and a further £90million “written down” because the IT it was spent on is not fit for purpose.

The number of people receiving Universal Credit has reached 5,180 people –  barely half of one per cent of those expected to be claiming at this point and less than 0.1 per cent of the total it is ultimately intended for. After repeatedly promising to Parliament that the project would be delivered “on time and on budget” Iain Duncan Smith has been forced to admit there is now no chance of the system becoming fully operational in 2017 as planned. And with reports that the limited IT system now up and running may have to be scrapped and completely replaced if Universal Credit is to achieve its original goals, it is now anyone’s guess when, whether and at what cost this great scheme will ever be delivered. If this is the government’s idea of something that’s going well, I’d hate to see their idea of failure.

No wonder the Major Projects Authority had to come up with a special new category for Iain Duncan Smith’s pet scheme – when it comes to failing government projects, Universal Credit is in a class of its own. But instead of colluding in his Secretary of State’s attempts to frustrate effective scrutiny of a project that has now burned through more than half a billion pounds to no clear benefit, David Cameron should be explaining how he has allowed this to happen under his watch as Prime Minister. If this government can’t sort this out it will take the next Labour government to deal with this culture of denial and ensure reforms are good for taxpayers and people who need a social security system that makes work pay and is fair.

Rachel Reeves MP is the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions