ID providers signed for Blighty's One Dole To Rule Them All plan
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The Department for Work and Pensions - seen last week attempting to stave off suggestions that management of its Universal Credit system was in crisis - has confirmed the first providers of its online identity scheme.
Credit report outfit Experian is on the list, as is the Post Office. The other players that will help design and implement an ID registration system for the DWP include vendors, such as Mydex, that have popped up more recently as the government's plans to create a market for so-called identity assurance started to become a reality.
Cassidian, Digidentity, Ingeus and Verizon are the other suppliers to have won the 18-month contracts, which are valued at a total of £25m. One other company is expected to ink a deal with the DWP in the next few weeks.
The ID services provided by those vendors will be used by around 21 million claimants in Blighty.
Minister for welfare reform Lord Freud said that the government had worked "with cyber security experts to ensure we are clear about the threats to the online process and we are confident that the providers announced today will offer an effective, safe and free-to-use identity service for future online benefit claims."
The dole office claimed that the entire registration process would be simplified for its users, which apparently will "reduce the costs incurred across government for the management of identity assurance".
It will be rolled into the rudderless Universal Credit system, which is due to overhaul Britain's benefits system by merging six government handouts into one regular payment that can be claimed and managed online. But earlier this month the DWP let go of key people who had been working on that project. ®
