Transparency data

DWP monthly payments explanatory notes

Published 12 January 2011

The information explains the abbreviations and terms used in the DWP monthly payments data.

The department’s accounting system descriptions were designed for internal use and not external publication. We are working to make the data and descriptions easier to understand. We hope these notes will help in the meantime.

General points

Payments are defined as:

• individual invoices
• grant payments
• expense payments
• other such transactions

Payments for staff salaries are excluded.

Value added tax

We publish data showing payments made each month that are over £25,000 including VAT. For payments where we can claim back the VAT, we publish the value excluding the recoverable VAT.

Lines showing less than £25,000

Some values shown are less than £25,000.

If a single payment relates to a number of separate products or services that should be coded separately for accounting purposes, then we publish separate values for each individual code, even where each entry at this level may be less than £25,000.

For example, if a single payment for £26,000 is made to 1 supplier but is for products for different parts of the department, then the report will show a line for each component of that payment. You can work out the payment total by adding together all those payments with the same transaction number.

Abbreviations and terms

The following tables are a guide to the abbreviations and terms used in the monthly payments data.

Spreadsheet ‘Entity’ column explanation

Entry in Spreadsheet ‘Entity’ column	Explanation
Corporate	The DWP corporate centre, comprising policy and support organisations acting for the whole department, eg Finance, Human Resources
Employment Programmes	A virtual entity provided to assist analysis of payments for services to help people find work
European Social Fund	DWP has overall responsibility for ESF funds used to support employment programmes in England
Housing Benefit	A virtual entity provided to assist analysis of payments for Housing Benefit administration
Jobcentre Plus	An Executive Agency of DWP
Pension, Disability and Carers Service	An Executive Agency of DWP

Spreadsheet ‘Expense Type’ column explanation

Entry in Spreadsheet ‘Expense Type’ column	Explanation
ADF	Adviser Discretionary Fund
AMS	Application Maintenance and Support – a service under the DWP arrangements for sourcing IS/IT services
APPS Dev	Applications development – an IS/IT term for work to develop software and systems to support DWP business
Basic Skills	Payments to an external provider in relation to an employment programme to help people find work
DAF	Deprived Areas Fund – a means to increase the employment rate in those areas with the highest levels of worklessness
EP Generic Provider Payments	Payments to an external provider in relation to an employment programme to help people find work
Generic Tower	Payments for generic IS/IT services to support DWP business
HB cool – DEL Programme	Housing Benefit – Departmental Expenditure Limit (payments relating to the administration of Housing Benefit)
Hosting	A service under the DWP arrangements for sourcing IS/IT services
JCP	Jobcentre Plus – an agency of DWP
JSP ESF DEL P Costs	Jobseekers Programme, European Social Fund, Departmental Expenditure Limit Programme ie expenditure to help people find work
Low Value Procurement	Low value, low risk procurements handled by DWP Shared Services provider
MA ESF(D) Costs	Payments of ESF funds for projects to address regional jobs and skills needs
MISC DEL Prog Receipts	Miscellaneous receipts under the Departmental Expenditure Limit allocation for Programme ie Employment related expenditure
ND 18-24 Gateway	Administrative payments for New Deal for 18 to 24 year olds
ND 18-24 Options	Administrative payments for New Deal for Adviser Fund for 18 to 24 year olds
ND 50+	Administrative payments for New Deal for 50 plus year olds
ND General	New Deal General Payments
ND Generic	New Deal generic administrative payments
NDDP	New Deal for Disabled People
NDLP	New Deal for Lone Parents
NDPB	Non Departmental Public Bodies
Network	Data and telephony network services
NI & OGDs	Northern Ireland Civil Service and Other Government Departments
Non PRIME Charges	Estate costs outside of the PRIME contract with Telereal Trillium
SIAM	Service Integration and Management – a service under the DWP arrangements for sourcing IS/IT services
TIS	Payments under the Travel to Interview Scheme

Spreadsheet ‘Expense Area’ column explanation

These abbreviations describe the internal parts of the department that generated the payment.

Entry in Spreadsheet ‘Expense Type’ column	Explanation
CIT	Corporate Information Technology
Chief Operating Officer (COO)	Jobcentre Plus Chief Operating Officer
ESAP Programmes	Employment Group
ESD	Employers and Stakeholders Directorate
F & C	Finance and Commercial
HRD	Human Resources Directorate
IIMP and OOHS	Jobcentre Plus Out of Hours Service
ISD	Corporate IT
LSPG	Legal Group
MISC RFR 5	Corporate Contract and Support Services
PDCS Change	Pension, Disability and Carers Service, Change Programme
PS	Professional Services
TPM Programmes	Transformation and Product Management Programmes
TPMD	Transformation and Product Management Directorate
WWEG Core Programme	Employment Group Core Programme
WWEG Top Level	Employment Group and Welfare and Wellbeing Group

Spreadsheet ‘Supplier’ column explanation

The entries cover all types of supplier that the department pays. This includes:

• private sector suppliers
• local authorities
• other public bodies

Some suppliers may have duplicate entries because of slight differences in the way they were set up.