Debbie Mcmahon
Universal Credit Full Service
March 2017
What is Universal Credit?
Universal Credit replaces:



Income-Based Jobseeker's Allowance

Income-Related Employment & Support Allowance

Income Support

Housing Benefit

Child Tax Credit

Working Tax Credit
Encourage and improve independence:

Removing risks

Responsive allowances and tapers

Claimant Commitment

Reflecting the world of work

Providing a safety net
Reduce fraud and error
Universal Credit in numbers
Online system including:

9 million claimants

3.5 million new claims per year

Over 20 million changes of circumstances per year

20,000 agents
Supporting a variety of claimants

35% couple claims

57% with children

51% in work

15% with Personal Independence Payment

7% with Carer's Allowance
UC Design Principles
SECURITY
Secure by design, automated in the
build of every feature.
VALUE: Mitigates data loss, data
breaches, hacking and downtime
FRAUD
Every interaction assessed for fraud
risk potential
VALUE: Configurable rules to
respond to risk & minimise
verification effort
REDUCED ERROR
Minimised ability to input
incorrect information, automation
of complex calculations
VALUE: Vastly reduces error,
greatly increased payment
accuracy
CLAIMANT BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
Improving claimant’s digital capability, minimising
manual tasks to allow focus on work search
VALUE: Cost effective (reduced telephony and F2F)
& improved job outcomes
LIVE TO DIGITAL TRANSFERS
Ability to deal with external information in an
automated way to ensure continuity of service &
maintain correct claimant information
VALUE: Underpins successful migration removing
scope for ingesting incorrect information
ABILITY TO SUPPORT POLICY
CHANGE
Use of configurable rules to rapidly
respond & re-prioritise
VALUE: Cost effective ability to
adhere to changing legislative
requirements
MI
Automated real-time reports, extractable
at multiple levels
VALUE: Operational management control,
ability to analyse policy outcomes
INFRASTRUCTURE
Scalable, resilient service with integrity. Minimal
maintenance requirements.
VALUE: Capable of securely delivering a quality
service to millions of claimants reliably & quickly
DESIGN
PRINCIPLES
GUIDANCE AND LEARNING
Contextual, easily accessible
guidance
VALUE: Streamlined service,
reduced error & better
understanding of policy drivers
TRANSFORMING THE BUSINESS
Freeing agents to focus on work outcomes with a
defined caseload whilst delivering a service that
responds to their needs faster
VALUE: Improved efficiency and commitment to
delivery based on deeper understanding of claimant
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
Ability to focus resource in light of
priority areas
VALUE: meets business case,
reduces staffing, significant cost
reduction
RESPONSIVE SERVICE
Feedback mechanisms & fortnightly
releases with minimal downtime
VALUE: Allows for rapid deployment
in response to learning
without disruption to
operations
UCFS has been developed using Agile methodolgy:
Absolutely critical is building a co-located, multi-disciplinary team,
including:

Developers

Testers

Infrastructure

User Experience

Copy writers

User Research

Business Analysts

Subject Matter Experts

Product Owner

Delivery, Release and Iteration Managers
In UCFS
Fortnightly releases
Single backlog owned by 2 Product Owners
A number of feature teams, some with technical specialisations
Agile Development in Government

Start with user needs (not the business)
User research

Iterate. Then iterate again.

Minimum viable product

Simplicity

Understand context

Build a Digital Service, not a website

Be consistent, not uniform

Multi-disciplinary team

Waterfall vs Agile:
Transforming the Service through Iterative Development
• New features added every few weeks, each increasing value to the business, each improving level of
automation, in turn each reducing operational (manual, agent led) intervention
• As each feature is added, the cost of operational overhead falls, and operational efficiency rises as we roll out
more widely
100%
% Automation
Operational Cost of Full Rollout
HIGH £
Releases deliver
productivity gains, e.g.
• Payments automation
Point at which digital feature set &
potential operational efficiency is
sufficient for scaling
LOW £
Oct 17
Nov 14
0%
A single backlog, a number of sources
Operational
Delivery
Policy
Performance
UCFS
Backlog
Security
(Business)
Technical
Infrastructure
Security
(Tech)
Funding, Governance & Integrations
•
Fully funded by DWP DEL
•
Reporting to a single UC Programme SRO
•
Responsible for own prioritisation, design and infrastructure but report to a
number of Departmental Governance Boards on delivery timescales
INTEGRATIONS
• In End State there will be a single user interface for agents
• This will require integrations with a number of cross-Govt systems including
CIS, RTE, Verify & CPS
• Will also utilise existing off the shelf products including QAS, Reach and BWA
• And small areas of functionality built by other DWP teams including postcode
look up and PYCA
• Prefer to use asynchronous, API based integrations
• Total number of integrations will be approximately 40
Security
Three different focuses for security:
1.
2.
Integrating Secure Design Service in to core business logic
▪
Using security decisions to guide the service to operate in a safe manner
▪
Adapting user journey dependent on security characteristics
‘Traditional’ infrastructure security
•
3.
Security that the infrastructure provides
Building in security
▪
Use of ‘nudge’ techniques
▪
Applying security principles throughout
▪
Validation and verification
Implications of a new service delivery model
Reduction in running costs – flexible, in house system, single supplier, cheap to change.
Channel costs – intuitive system maximises online channel use by claimant and agent. >99% new
claims and >85% changes of circumstance.
Security – built in to service from day one, no need to crate interfaces with security decision service,
functions seamlessly with back end.
One service – work and benefits linked for claimant, encourages personal responsibility and
engagement. Once and done service approach with a single system for agents to use
Reduction in fraud and error – fraud and error reduction designed in, integral to all processes and
channels. Prevention is cheaper than detection and recovery
Operational management – intra day reporting of Management Information
Transformation of operations – a reactive service that dynamically responds to agent need, significant
cultural leadership transformation
Any questions?