Universal Credit - "Digital by Default.." with added long-term problems

Universal credit to be first service 'digital by default'.. The Guardian writes...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/government-computing-network/2012/feb/03/universal-credit-digital-by-default?CMP=twt_gu

Claimants of universal credit will be expected to transacting online, the Department for Work and Pensions' programmes director Steve Dover has said. Universal credit will be the first major government service to be digital by default, according to Steve Dover, director of major programmes at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

"There will be a back office to deal with the more vulnerable in society, but it will be thinner and there will be a massive web-enabled internet channel for the vast majority of the transactions that will be done for universal credit," he told the Goverment ICT Summit event in London.

--- Read more about this below....

But, what are my thought's on this...? and do I see faults, yup!

• as this is a IT system, and claimant's have to "be online" to use this service. My question is. Just how are people on (a) low incomes (b) with Disability's (c) with Disability's who cannot work (d) who are on JSA, on the minimum weekly amount of £65 a week... going to be able to get online?
• has the IT system been tested, with as many users as possible ?
• does the system has access for people with Disability's, so it can be read easily ? 
• can people with learning disability's use this system effectively ?
• how secure will the system be ? can it be hacked in to, and could personal information be stolen ?
• is there a good Data Protection system for it

I already see plenty of faults with a hi-tech system like this, in use.

OK, so...

• why no personal contact
• why do claimants have to be online
• will there be computer access points in JCP offices, and will they work and not crash unlike the current "job points" ? 

Hmmm, I'll add more questions to this when I read more about what type of IT system will be in place, and how.

But what do you think ? do leave a comment below!

--- Continue reading the article from The Guardian

The Universal Credit IT project, which started a year ago, has been a massive undertaking, Dover said, and has involved changing the culture of the department. It will see the introduction of an operating model that will start to reduce the DWP's telephony channels.

"The starting point, I said to our telephony collaboration teams based in Newcastle, was just think of a contact centre, but it has got no people in it and think of an operating model that has got no back office, and start from there," said Dover.

There will be a contact centre with staff as well and voice recognition technology, but the public will be "nudged back" to the web channel, he added.

The project has generated much interest around its use of an 'agile' development model. When the DWP began "dabbling" with agile, it ran into trouble because of its lack of understanding and subsequently sort help from outside organisaitons, in particular from the SME Emergn, and has retained the company's services, Dover said.

"The biggest danger is to let those specialists go. You can reduce them, but you need to keep them there, because people need to remain on that journey," he told delegates. "For example, it takes about six months to get one of our people to the point where they can do professional facilitation of agile elaboration workshops... It takes up to two years to become a fully fledged agile coach."

An agile approach will enable the introduction of universal credit in October 2013, Dover said: by comparison other methods delivery would delayed the project until February or March 2015, budgets would have doubled and "there would have been huge arguments along the way with our partners, our service providers, and within the departments between all the different silos, so policy, business design, IT, implementation, release and operations".

However, concerns remain around how likely the universal credit scheme will be to deliver. A spokesman for the civil service PCS union, which represents DWP staff, said: "Some of the most vulnerable people in society will rely on universal credit, and it is absolutely essential that the underlying IT works. Give that the recent history of government IT is littered with failures, we have yet to be convinced that this will be successful. Failure, however, will be catastrophic."