Lord Stoneham of Droxford
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Universal Credit
Lord Stoneham of Droxford Excerpts(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Lord Freud
My Lords, we have a very substantial contingency prepared if, for instance, a disaster takes down our data centre—we have two data centres for that reason—and particularly if we have a cyberattack. We will have contingency built into the system to make sure that our payments systems do not go down because of these problems.
Lord Stoneham of Droxford
Can the Minister confirm that the Treasury is giving the fullest possible co-operation to his department on the computerisation of the universal credit system? In particular, are employers being sufficiently geared up to provide monthly pay information on their employees?
Lord Freud
My Lords, I am happy to confirm that the Treasury is whole-heartedly in support of this radical transformation of our welfare system. Part of the system relies on real time information through HMRC networks, and HMRC is driving ahead with a series of expanding pathfinders. It currently has 2 million employees or pensioners on the system today and is ramping it up into April and October next year.