Oral Answers to Questions Debate
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Charlie Elphicke
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Oral Answers to Questions
Charlie Elphicke Excerpts(10 years, 1 month ago)
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Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
In developing universal credit and its IT system, what lessons have the Government drawn from IT projects conducted by the previous Government?
Mr Duncan Smith
The reason why we are doing this in a way that tests it at each stage, so we make sure we have got it right before rolling it out and taking more numbers on board, is because we want to make sure that taxpayers’ money is protected through this process and that the system works. I recall, as I am sure my hon. Friend does, that when the Labour Government launched tax credits it was a total disaster; we had loads of people in our surgeries with real problems relating to payments. This Government will never revisit that, which is why I will never accept any advice from the lot who wasted billions on failed IT programmes.