Minor correction: Universal Credit should be capitalised. It took me a couple of tries to parse the headline until I realised it was about the benefit.
[url=http://arstechnica.co.uk/civis/viewtopic.php?p=30864889#p30864889:12tnf7ai said:
ChickenHawk[/url]":12tnf7ai]
Universal Credit is at its core such a common sense idea that it confuses me exactly as to why this IT system is so damn complicated. Rather than different benefits with different payout amounts, it's one rate, with some extras on top for certain groups (eg more if you're disabled and need extra funds for the extra living costs). Surely at its core it's just a billing system in reverse?
It's incredibly difficult to communicate how complex the DWP is to outsiders. We're talking about a department that employs ~100k people, and operates as a few different executive agencies (PDCS, JCP, etc. It also still uses legacy systems that are decades old. You're right that the basic idea behind UC is sound, but actually pulling it all together was always going to be a shitstorm. In the long run it's a good idea though.
