Applications for Universal Credit show little sign of significantly slowing down with more than 200,000 new claims being made each week.
Since the implementation of social distancing measures on 16 March, the Department for Work and Pensions has received more than 1.4 million claims for the benefit. As of two weeks ago, this figure stood at 950,000 – meaning that close to half a million applications have been made in the last fortnight.
To cope with the surging demand, the DWP has redeployed 10,000 staff to support the processing of these claims, and is also recruiting a further 5,000 new employees to do so.
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The department has also dedicated additional cash to the underlying tech infrastructure, with permanent secretary Peter Schofield revealing last month that he would be putting money into the GOV.UK Verify identity-assurance service to try and enable it to better cope with “an unprecedented number of people who’ve never had to engage with the government in this way before”.
The cash boost came in light of claimants reporting delays of several hours in proving their identity via the platform.
The DWP today announced that it intends to further increase its capacity by opening up access to UC via the Government Gateway system.
From now on, new applicants can demonstrate their identity using an existing Government Gateway account, providing it has been used in the last 12 months to access an online Personal Tax Account, check a state pension or tax credits, or digitally file a personal tax return.
“The move is expected to help thousands of claimants,” the DWP said.
Those without an active account will still be required to use Verify to prove their identity.
Despite the efforts to phase out the platform, Government Gateway remains widely used by both citizens and Whitehall departments.
Since its launch almost two decades ago, more than 50 million people have registered on the system, which offers cross-government access to online services via a login ID and a password-protected account.
This compares with about 6.5 million citizens that have signed up for Verify – the development of which was intended to offer departments a more modern and secure way of managing access to their digital services.
However, the 22 services that have adopted Verify to date is a fraction of those that continue to use Government Gateway – even four years after it was decommissioned, a process that was ultimately overseen by HM Revenue and Customs.
The tax agency opted to “rebuild” Government Gateway and retain it as the means of access for all its online services.
The system is also still in use across 16 services provided by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and its agencies. Others that still use the technology to offer access to one or more services include the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Ministry of Justice, the Welsh Government, the NHS, and Northern Ireland Departments of Infrastructure and Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.