Single-tier Pension (Contingencies Fund Advance) Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Department for Work and Pensions

Single-tier Pension (Contingencies Fund Advance)

Steve Webb Excerpts
Wednesday 9th April 2014

(10 years, 10 months ago)

Written Statements
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Steve Webb Portrait The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb)
- Hansard - -

The Department for Work and Pensions has obtained approval for a further advance from the Contingencies Fund of £549,000 for the continued development of IT for the single-tier pension before Royal Assent. This advance is necessitated by the lead-in time for delivery in April 2016 which requires IT work to be undertaken prior to Royal Assent of the Pensions Bill.

Parliamentary approval for additional resource of £549,000 for this new service has been sought in the main supply estimate 2014-15 for the Department for Work and Pensions. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £549,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund. The repayment is expected to be made in the financial year 2014-15.

This advance will allow the single-tier programme to continue to work to meet the timetable of April 2016 to implement the single-tier new service.