Cabinet Office and DWP procure digital services for Universal Credit
The Cabinet Office and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) have joined forces to formally seek the services of specialist providers.
1 March 2012
The Cabinet Office and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) have joined forces to formally seek the services of specialist identity providers who will deliver safe and secure access to DWP services.
DWP will be the first to use the new Identity Assurance (IDA) digital services to support its flagship Universal Credit programme and the Personal Independence Payment, which from 2013 will replace its current complex and outdated benefit system.
The government’s IDA programme is designed to ensure that all users of digital public services are able to assert their identities safely, securely and simply.
An OJEU, which is published today is inviting bids to provide these specialist identity services. The contract will be in line with the Cabinet Office’s overall efficiency programme using smarter procurement and the move to put more services online through the Government Digital Service (GDS).
Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude said:
Our cross-departmental collaboration illustrates the smarter ways of working that will deliver more effective and user-friendly public services. Throughout, we have focused on the needs of the individual user and opened up the tender process to the maximum number of suppliers possible, expanding choice, promoting efficiencies and encouraging growth in the SME sector.
The IDA programme supports this government’s “digital by default” policy - part of its strategy for 21st century ICT - with digitally delivered public services offering greater convenience for users and better value for taxpayers.
Just last month, the Cabinet Office announced that overall efficiency and reform measures will save at least £5bn this year. In the first eight months of 2011/12, smarter procurement has already produced savings of £295m by centralising spend on common goods and services; and another £140m has been saved by demanding - for the first time - a rigorous business case for any significant ICT spend.
Notes to editors
- The Official Journal of the European Union is the publication in which all tenders from the public sector valued above a certain financial threshold according to EU legislation must be published. Details of the OJEU can be found at http://www.tendersdirect.co.uk/?source=OJEU&lgid=OJEU
- Further background information on the government’s Identity Assurance Programme can be found here: http://www.digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/
- For further details on the government’s Efficiency and Reform programme, please see www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk