DWP says it will make ½ billion savings through “greater efficiency”

The Government’s plan to reduce public spending will require DWP to fundamentally reduce spending by 2012/13 and make by over £550 million of savings – as part of £11bn savings across government.

The savings will include:

• £40m of savings in its property costs
• £180m through getting better value out of major contracts, including IT
• reducing the size of its senior civil service and streamlining its support services (unspecified totals)
• £200m by “delivering benefits more efficiently”

Amongst the detailed efficiencies proposed, the Department will

• expand online services so people can claim their pension or Jobseeker’s Allowance online
• using workspace and IT resources more flexibly
• further action to reduce fraud and error in the benefit system
• recover debt from overpayments
• reduce the amount of office space
• reducing spend on consultants
• improving procurement.

The department has outlined its record on making savings to date, and its priorities for the future, earlier this week in a document ‘Delivering More for Less – the Efficiency Programme of the DWP’. This shows that DWP saved a total of £1,446 million through efficiency savings up to March 2008.

The DWP release is at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-rel...